School improvement as narrative: Telling tales on the road from the definitive to the provisional

This chapter uses existing research into teachers’, school leaders’ and systems leaders’ perceptions of collegiate trust and accountability to explore the deeper, more persistent narratives that frame the discourse of school improvement. Here are narratives that underplay uncertainty and the provisional, and instead emphasise more predictable story arcs that feature stable growth and development. Yet, in effect, these storied accounts, despite their comforting implied tendency towards an imagined narrative closure of absolute professional practice, are themselves unpicked by two significant features of the concept of school improvement: its actual lack of narrative closure, and its capacity to deliver unexpected and problematic twists and turns. The chapter goes on to argue that crucial, system-wide discussions about professional trust and accountability are better served once the notion of school improvement is re-framed as a narrative, and suggests how these dialogues might proceed.