Leadership Practices for Rapidly Implementing Educational Change Initiatives: An Exploration of the Implementation of the Neurosequential Model in Education

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify the leadership practices and change processes that educational change leaders employ to rapidly bring change into practice. In this study of change leaders, a single innovation the Neurosequential Model in Education (NME) was the change being implemented in a rapid time frame. NME is an innovative, developmentally based approach that K-12 schools around the world are adopting to help solve the ‘wicked problem’ of addressing the academic and wellbeing needs of students who have experienced trauma and adversity. The demands of complex and changing student populations require leaders and change agents who can innovate and change practice in three years or less rather than the five years accepted as conventional change timeframes. This explanatory sequential study focuses on the perspectives of change leaders through a mixed methods design using questionnaires and interviews to gather the strategies and beliefs of leaders who efficiently brought the NME into practice. The participants were 35 educational professionals representing multiple roles and administrative levels who had completed training in NME. At the time of the study, NME was being used in eight countries and the participants represented five of these countries: Australia, Canada, the United States of America, Scotland, and South Africa. Using an explanatory sequential study design, the first phase was quantitative using a questionnaire and the second phase was qualitative using an interview. The first phase had 35 participants responding to the survey. The sample for the second phase was derived from volunteers from the survey in the first phase, with 15 participants participating in semi-structured interviews. A balanced analysis was conducted with the quantitative and qualitative approaches given approximately equal weight. The leaders in the study were able to efficiently bring the NME into practice by combining change and leadership practices with neuroscience principles. This creative merging by the change leaders gave rise to an emergent framework for conceptualizing and implementing planned change in a rapid time frame. A framework merging NME principle with change process and leadership practices is suggested for others seeking to rapidly implement change in schools.