eprintid: 10203037 rev_number: 10 eprint_status: archive userid: 699 dir: disk0/10/20/30/37 datestamp: 2025-02-28 12:37:02 lastmod: 2025-02-28 12:37:02 status_changed: 2025-02-28 12:37:02 type: thesis metadata_visibility: show sword_depositor: 699 creators_name: Scutt, Catherine title: Are school leaders' decisions about teaching and learning policy really driven by research evidence? An investigation of decision-making practices in English schools ispublished: unpub divisions: UCL divisions: B16 divisions: B14 divisions: J77 note: Copyright © The Author 2025. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. abstract: There has been increasing interest in the use of research and evidence to inform education in recent years. In England, this has included an increasing focus in education policy on the promotion of – or even requirement of - evidence-informed practice (for example Department for Education, 2019a and 2019b; Ofsted, 2022). The overarching, although contested, vision is that by drawing on research evidence, teaching can be as ‘effective’ as possible and outcomes for students will ultimately be improved (Brown, 2017). In this context of increased interest in evidence-informed practice, this thesis explores the extent to which and the ways in which school leaders utilise research evidence to inform their decisions, as well as other factors that inform or influence these decisions. Following a review of the literature, three studies are undertaken to progressively narrow and deepen our understanding of school leaders’ decision-making: two surveys of teachers and school leaders and a pre-and-post interview process with a small number of school leaders as they make key decisions around teaching and learning policy in their schools. The findings of the literature review and three studies are illustrated through the development and refinement of a model of school leader decision-making. The research findings, as well as the model of school leader decision-making, shows how school leaders make use of research evidence as well as range of other information sources when making decisions in school, with different sources being drawn upon and used in different ways depending on the nature of the decision being made. Practical considerations and factors such as the accountability system and the school’s context also influence decision-making, and school leaders must often navigate tensions between different stakeholder priorities and information sources when making decisions. The complexity of the decision-making process is demonstrated, with simplistic notions of evidence-informed decision-making rejected. date: 2025-01-28 date_type: published oa_status: green full_text_type: other thesis_class: doctoral_open thesis_award: Ph.D language: eng primo: open primo_central: open_green verified: verified_manual elements_id: 2347186 lyricists_name: Scutt, Catherine lyricists_id: CSCUT98 actors_name: Scutt, Catherine actors_name: Allington-Smith, Dominic actors_id: CSCUT98 actors_id: DAALL44 actors_role: owner actors_role: impersonator full_text_status: public pages: 330 institution: UCL (University College London) department: Culture, Communication & Media, Institute of Education thesis_type: Doctoral citation: Scutt, Catherine; (2025) Are school leaders' decisions about teaching and learning policy really driven by research evidence? An investigation of decision-making practices in English schools. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London). Green open access document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10203037/1/Scutt_10203037_thesis.pdf