Research
Working papers and commissioned research.
Every paper here is free to read and share. We sometimes ask for your name and email so we can let you know when new research lands. It's always optional, and you only need to do it once.
Coming 29 October · Free vision paper
Tamara Zaple Rolfs FCCT and the School-Based Community Leadership Working Group
How can school groups meet the distinct needs of each community they serve? This new vision paper explores shared capacity, local relationships and governance that keeps each school rooted in its community. Sign up to receive your free copy when it launches.
A Work Collaborative vision paper, supported by Toddle.
Our first commissioned paper
Dr Kathryn Taylor EdD FCCT · April 2026 · The Bridge
Schools get stuck in cycles of short-lived initiatives that frustrate leaders and wear staff out. This paper argues the problem isn't a lack of effort, it's the gap between a school's stated culture and what staff actually experience day to day. Rather than chasing silver bullets, Dr Taylor makes the case for change that is shaped with teachers, not done to them: psychologically safe conditions, genuine collaboration, and sustained support that lets good ideas take root.
Commissioned and funded by Work Collaborative, the non-profit arm of Education Leaders. Cite as: Taylor, K. (2026). Beyond the Quick Fix: culture, agency and sustainable change in education. The Bridge.
Latest working paper · No. 1
Shane Leaning · May 2026 · Work Collaborative Working Paper No. 1
Schools are full of coaching: for teaching, for leadership, for building a coaching culture. But there's almost nothing for coaching the school as an organisation, helping a whole community develop itself. This paper names that missing practice "organisational development coaching", maps where it sits in the schools coaching landscape, and pulls together twenty years of research from beyond education to show what it could look like in real school contexts, from multi-academy trusts to international school groups.
Free under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence (CC BY 4.0). Cite as: Leaning, S. (2026). Schools Know Best: Organisational development coaching as an underdeveloped practice in schools: a research synthesis. Work Collaborative Working Paper No. 1. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.20471564