Turning a pedagogical intervention into a whole school ethos can be challenging. To improve the likelihood of intervention becoming ethos, the whole school community must be involved from the outset. Inclusion and ownership of the process are essential: without relational agency, the chance of sustaining the innovation decreases.

In September 2023, the headteacher at a school in North East England decided to develop a homework curriculum using a project-based learning (PBL) approach. The Head had experience of this approach in a previous school. Her aim was for pupils to work collaboratively with parents, teachers and the wider local community on an enrichment homework project over a full term. The driving questions were connected to the school values and all outputs were showcased to the whole school and invited guests.

The Head was aware that trialling this approach would involve training staff, collaborative planning, and a commitment to a feedback, review and reflection cycle. A university researcher was therefore brought in to continuously observe and reflect on the implementation process from an “outsider” perspective and bring their experience in PBL to develop relational agency: mutual strengthening of competence and expertise to enhance the collective competence of a school community. The researcher was also able to support teachers and leaders with training and brokerage.

Research questions were:
- How did partners co-create the innovation using a relational agency approach?
- What were opportunities and challenges identified by teachers and how did these impact on their behaviour and practice?
- What can be learned from the process?

A mixed methods approach was used to gather data from teachers, pupils and parents, with an overarching case study approach (Yin, 2009). Post-intervention questionnaires were distributed, and ongoing qualitative feedback gathered through focus groups and semi-structured interviews. Alongside this, a co-production approach was used to develop training resources and materials for delivery. Reflective fieldnotes charted this process.

The results showed mixed feedback from teachers, pupils and parents regarding the change. Though initially reluctant to collaborate, most teachers engaged with the process, and many had positive feedback at the end. The pupils responded relatively enthusiastically at first, and many actively engaged with the process, producing successful, high-quality outputs which they were keen to showcase. Their initial feedback was very positive. However, later feedback collected anonymously was more negative, perhaps influenced by peers or parents. Finally, parental feedback at the end of the process was overwhelmingly negative, with most unwilling to continue with the process into the following term. This led to conversations between the Head, the senior leaders and the researcher about the value of continuing the change process without further consultation with all teachers, parents and pupils.

Although the intervention was not fully successful, the school benefitted from understanding common enablers and barriers to embedding innovative change and what factors are necessary for that change to be sustainable. Sustained innovation occurs through shared vision, beliefs and values, and enabling teachers to develop normalised behaviours and practices. Understanding the change process and how it impacts the entire school community will allow intervention to become ethos.

Keywords: Innovation, relational agency, project-based learning, PBL, intervention, change process.