This presentation was given by Dahle Suggett at the CERI Conference on Innovation, Governance and Reform in Education on 3 November 2014 during session 3.b: The Challenge of Complexity: Rethinking Relationships and Approaches on Knowledge-intensive Governance, Innovation and Change.

1. CHALLENGE OF COMPLEXITY:
RETHINKING APPROACHES
Dahle Suggett

2. Australian case studies – Victoria
Real and current examples
Each has characteristics of
Local response to redrawn system responsibilities
Local agencies testing their autonomy and
capacity
Venturing into unknown territory
New forms of collaboration and on a wider front
Trust and mutual accountability

3. Snapshot 1
Refocus responsibility for self-improvement in group of 10
schools with 4,500 students
Problem 1
Government change from ‘directive’ in school
administration to ‘facilitative’
Schools are more autonomous, trusted and empowered
BUT can mean diminishing supports, loss of expertise,
isolation and changed identity for schools - no longer
secure in large powerful system
Solutions
Test the boundaries: establish a collaborative local
administrative ‘system’
Build behaviours with strong local mutual accountability
Buy in specialist services
Change the governance to focus collectively on the 10
schools

4. Snapshot 2
Relationships and trust at the centre of building a school’s capacity to
respond to new arrivals and refugees across 54 nationalities
Problem 2
School overwhelmed by learning challenges faced by their students
Families with different cultural expectations of schools, language
barriers, minimal pre-school experience
Families in need – economic and social
But, who is there to help? Confusion about access to local services;
locus of responsibility - role of school versus welfare agencies
Solutions
Recast the school as the centre for driving solutions – what can we do?
Deepened relationships with families – from knowing their families to
establishing relationships and being trusted; school as conduit to
families and solutions
And, adopted a rigorous negotiation with other agencies on their role
and contribution

5. Snapshot 3
Turnaround of persistent (two decades) underperformance in a low socio-economic
region of 140 schools
Problem 3
Trapped in a cycle of low expectations of students and low expectations
of schools
Mixed teacher quality- low self-efficacy
Lack of trust across schools and with administration
Solutions
Built common understanding of challenges and common language for
solutions among schools
Structured process to build trust and mutual accountability in networks
(7-10 schools)
‘Precise’ instructional techniques, data sharing, high intensity self-improvement
effort
‘Gradual release of responsibility’ from regional administration - from
tight direction to loose to let go

6. Implications: policy and
administration
Schools are part of a whole – many interacting
elements acting simultaneously; discourse and
evidence needs to embrace this
Multiple small steps – can’t be captured in a
conventional strategic plan; need organic flexible
plans
New expertise needed – leadership of networks,
negotiation, needs assessment, community
knowledge, contracting
Trust and ‘learn as we go’ – new risk assessment
New administrative tools; new system arrangements –
‘compact’, localised agreements, localised data
Realign rules and remove barriers – rethink industrial
and regulatory environment