The Wicked Problem of Trust-Wide Subject Communities

I’ve been grappling with the question of subject learning communities throughout this academic year and I’ve come to the conclusion that collaborative subject-based groups that operate across Multi-Academy Trusts pose Trust leaders (and the leaders of these groups) with a series of ‘wicked problems’. 

The term ‘wicked problem’ was first coined by Horst Rittel and Melvin Webber in 1973. They used it to describe problems that are difficult to solve because they are complex, have no clear solutions, and may be resistant to change.  

Rittel and Webber identified ten characteristics of wicked problems:  

1. There is no definitive formulation of the problem.  

2. There is no stopping rule to determine when the problem is solved.  

3. Every solution to a wicked problem is a “one-shot operation”; because there is no opportunity to learn by trial-and-error, every attempt counts significantly.  

4. Wicked problems have no right or wrong answers.  

5. Wicked problems are essentially unique.  

6. Every wicked problem can be considered to be a symptom of another problem.  

7. The existence of a discrepancy representing the wicked problem is denied by the problem’s clients.  

8. Wicked problems can be explained incompletely.  

9. Wicked problems have no immediate and no ultimate test of a solution.  

10. Wicked problems are similar in their structure to other wicked problems ¹ 

As with all wicked problems in education, they are bound by their current contexts- and even these contextual factors work on a constantly shifting continuum and aren’t fixed in position. It is therefore important that leaders are well-versed in understanding how their work and current thinking is impacted by a shifting, multifaceted landscape and that they are able to be versatile enough to adapt their approach where necessary, whilst staying true to the Trust’s mission and values.  

Being face-to-face with a problem like this is an exciting prospect and the intellectual exercise of finding solutions that work well is a leadership challenge to relish! As Sir David Carter and Laura McInerney write: ‘ Run towards the challenge. Run towards conflict.’² 

Why are subject communities so problematic? 

It would be difficult to argue against the idea of collaboration in education. There is fairly strong evidence that suggests that getting teachers of a subject together enhances their practice and understanding- and you will have undoubtedly felt the tangible benefits of this during your own career.  

One of the greatest benefits of operating across a Multi-Academy Trust is that there are ready-made platforms to share expertise and to learn from experiences from more diverse contexts. Well-documented evidence suggests that subject learning communities can lead to:  

We know there is strong evidence that domain-specific CPD can support teachers in gaining greater expertise and that subject groups that exist beyond the immediate school context can offer a vehicle for colleagues to develop understanding of application of new knowledge.  

Creating effective, self-sustaining communities help to galvanise subject-specific practice, build camaraderie across schools and to support and develop a rich curricula.  

Different Trusts operate different models in this area- some Trusts have full/part-time directors of a subject (often offering school-to-school support and delivering on school improvement/ creating communities of practice etc), some Trusts operate with subject leaders holding an additional TLR/ working voluntarily to work alongside the Trust to run subject-specific networks and some Trusts offer more informal opportunities to meet with colleagues who teach the same subject. Clearly, all of what I’m about to share is dependent on the sort of model that the Trust has selected- so please proceed with caution!  

It’s obvious that these sorts of communities can be transformational to teacher learning and therefore heavily impact the quality of teaching and learning in schools- but, as with everything, the devil is in the detail and success is bred through carefully-considered and sensitive implementation.  

Rittel and Webber’s list of the characteristics of wicked problems provide a useful framework to consider this more closely and helps to prompt some questions that are worthy of further exploration for Trust leaders or for colleagues who are leading these sorts of communities:  

Wicked Problem Criteria	Questions for subject-based communities
There is no definitive formulation of the problem.	What sort of problems does this group aim to solve? Why does it exist in the first place? What does the group aim to do/ aim not to do?   Sometimes, groups are formed to serve a purpose that participants and leaders are not really clear about. (Just having a group in the first place isn’t enough to secure success!) Who decides the priorities of the group? The leader? The Trust? What are the unintended consequences of having an agenda set for the group? How much do members of the group collectively ‘own’ the problems posed?   Are there bigger issues at play? E.g. the relationship between the Trust and its schools? How developed/ habitual is collaborative learning? Where are the areas for improvement and how can these subject communities support in this?   Are there organisational barriers to overcome? Do we fully understand the sort of dynamic we are creating/ has been created?
There is no stopping rule to determine when the problem is solved.	How do you accurately measure the impact that the group is having?   How do you know (for sure) that the students in classrooms are benefitting from their teachers/ HODs being a part of this community? Is it, therefore a valuable use of staff time and effort?   Are there tangible benefits to this group’s existence?    What would happen if the group didn’t exist?    How will you know when you have achieved what you have set out to achieve as a group?    Will the results look different across different schools? How will you know that individual schools have made the progress you have intended over the course of a year?
Every solution to a wicked problem is a “one-shot operation”; because there is no opportunity to learn by trial-and-error, every attempt counts significantly.	Any opportunity that Trust staff have to engage with teachers, leaders and staff in schools is crucial in reinforcing the mission and values of the Trust- has enough consideration been given to the planning of the group? /The group’s direction? Has the quality of the interactions had within the group been considered? If there are multiple subject groups in operation, is there parity/ consistency in the operation of these groups, if not, why not? If yes, is this restrictive?    Relationships and culture take time to build but moments to destroy- how do you ensure that you don’t fall into short-term fixes/ potentially damage trusting and supportive relationships across schools?
Wicked problems have no right or wrong answers.	What is the end goal? It is difficult to find the ‘perfect’ model of Trust-wide subject communities, particularly when Trusts operate so many different models of subject-specific networks and the shifting landscape will necessitate different approaches at different times.    What’s clear is that a ‘drag-and-drop’ method of implementation is not going to be successful.
Wicked problems are essentially unique.	All Trusts are at unique stages of maturity and development, as are departments, as are leaders and individual teaching staff. How well do you know the audience of this group, their strengths and skillset/ areas for future development? What about the friction between individual teacher development and departmental development? How will you ensure that the group delivers on both fronts? How do you ensure relevance in these meetings for staff who need to deliver on varied school development priorities?
Every wicked problem can be considered to be a symptom of another problem.	The problems faced by subject-specific groups are not dissimilar to the wider challenges that exist for any schools working in collaboration/ a Trust- ones that relate to culture, values, consistency.

How have we worked to overcome some of these issues? 

There are 9 secondary schools as part of The Mercian Trust. There are two grammar schools, five mixed comprehensive schools, one Alternate Provision and one Studio School- one of the greatest assets of our Trust is the range of contexts we operate within- it gives even greater opportunities for collaboration, the sharing of expertise and professional learning. We have a group of 10 subject leaders/ senior leaders who hold additional posts as ‘Trust Lead Professionals’. They have one half day per week dedicated to their Trust work, their role includes:

• Running Professional Learning Communities in their subject(s);  
• Contributing to the Trust CPD programme  
• Writing for the monthly Trust educational journal The Expertise Exchange 
• Undertaking informal school-to-school support, building on the work in their PLCs.  

In order to overcome some of the issues highlighted above, the priority this year with this growing group is to train TLPs as new system leaders- this is much more than gathering all Heads of Department in a room to share resources/ ideas, instead, this exciting role offers the unique and timely opportunity for colleagues in middle leadership positions to learn about implementation at scale, how to lead, create and sustain effective cultures of thinking and to better understand “the relationship between change, people, resources and capacity”³. The two-year secondment therefore offers colleagues an ideal springboard for senior leadership or for promoted Trust-wide leadership positions.  

Sir David Carter speaks about this welcome change in growing the capacity and development of middle leaders:  

 “The most interesting development that I see is where middle leaders who in the past would have needed to move from school to school to gain their career development are now working as trust directors of English, for example, or directors of research and development. It is not unrealistic to think that someone who has this level of experience as a system leader is better prepared to become a CEO than a colleague who has only worked in a single school.”⁴ 

Sir David Carter/ Laura McInerney

In the book ‘ Leading Academy Trusts- Why some fail but most don’t’, Sir David Carter and Laura McInerney identify the key ingredients to effectively develop and support these colleagues in role:  

Understanding change: system leadership is rarely about maintenance. The role of developing and improving a system means thinking differently about responding to existing challenges. 

Understanding people: people: you cannot lead change at scale unless you can communicate with people- The system leader has to understand that change creates anxiety, and that implementation comes after hearts and minds have been won over. 

Understanding resources: the system leader does not lead change in a vacuum. Being aware of the cost of change is a major part of making the change credible. 

Understanding capacity: change does not happen without the capacity to embed the concept and the new delivery model into the system that the CEO is responsible for.⁵ 

In order to be successful in role, there is a necessity to cover these areas through an ongoing training programme and through sensitive and considered line management processes.  

Here’s how…

Understanding change: system leadership is rarely about maintenance. The role of developing and improving a system means thinking differently about responding to existing challenges. 

It’s key that Trust Lead Professionals have a strong sense of what makes effective change and how the conditions of change have to be right in order for that change to be sustained over time. During line management meetings during the first half term, we looked at models of effective implementation and questioned how these could be applied during the Professional Learning Communities.  

We used the EEF’s School’s Guide to Implementation to consider how change occurs and to better understand how implementation may not have succeeded previously:  

The outcome of our discussion was fascinating and actually quite profound- experienced leaders of Professional Learning Communities had concluded that they had never moved beyond the ‘explore’ stage of implementation in their subject communities and therefore couldn’t see clearly the impact that the group was having. Coupled with a greater understanding of how to work with educational research (thanks to an analysis of the International Teacher CPD Report by Cat Scutt and Sarah Harrison: International Teacher CPD Report – chartered.college )and an additional training session from Cat Scutt on using educational research effectively, we were in a stronger position to be able to plan for more meaningful change through the Professional Learning Communities.  

These discussions had supported the Trust Lead Professionals to consider organisational barriers to the group’s success, and promoted a deeper understanding of how changes could be made to more effectively support the aims and work of the group. Likewise, approaching this group with transparency in terms of the wider strategic plan for CPD as a Trust and also the wider plans for the development of the role was key in galvanising a team who contribute fully and owned these developments.  

Understanding people: you cannot lead change at scale unless you can communicate with people- The system leader has to understand that change creates anxiety, and that implementation comes after hearts and minds have been won over. 

For me, this aspect of system leadership is the most crucial and therefore is where we have spent most of our efforts in further developing Trust Lead Professionals. It’s a multi-pronged approach: Trust Lead Professionals needed to understand themselves as leaders, the conditions of their current group and its journey to maturity and needed to fully understand the people they were leading through this forum. Likewise, they need to understand effective modes of communication- how would they manage this community in such a way that colleagues feel valued, appreciated and not isolated for whatever reason. It’s a sensitive operation and therefore TLPs needed to be well-versed and well-equipped on how to manage those challenges.  

Giving the Trust Lead Professionals coaching training was key in supporting an approach that allowed for the best sharing and appreciation of expertise. Dr Jim Rogers delivered training to Trust Lead Professionals early in the Spring term to support them in understanding the various models of coaching that exist and how a coaching approach may be an appropriate tool to have in their armory for the running of their Professional Learning Community.  

If our teachers are going to gain from attending this community of practice, it can’t be on the basis of a superficial gain (I.e. a couple of resources to take away to support a Year 9 class), but instead, the learning that is gained in these sessions should have indicated a shift/ development of professional thinking. Creating a community that celebrates a true culture of thinking is what we are aiming for- through intellectual exercises of collaborative problem-solving, we could effectively build a teacher’s professional arsenal: they would have the tools to tackle problems of the future because they supported a different school in the Trust in a similar pursuit previously.  

To promote the idea of creating a culture of thinking, this level of thinking is modelled to Trust Lead Professionals through the line management process. Trust Lead Professionals meet fortnightly, discuss challenges, coach each other using a common framework for group maturity.

Dr Chris Baker from Cabot Learning Federation and my colleagues from the Trust-wide CPD Leaders’ Forum have been key in developing my thinking in this area and very generous in sharing their work. Following a conversation with Chris and the wider forum, he shared the Tacit model for group maturity that has now become the basis of the line management process for Trust Lead Professionals. Emily Webber, author of ‘Building Successful Communities of Practice: Discover How Connecting People Makes Better Organisations’ reinforces the importance of regular inspectation of how well a community of practice is meeting need: 

“Communities of practice only exist as long as there is an interest from members in maintaining the group. This is why the practice of regularly inspecting how the well the community is meeting needs — and adapting it to ensure it does — is crucial to a community’s survival.” ⁶ 

It was therefore crucial that line management arrangements were made so that regular review and discussion of barriers to maturity were highlighted. The Tacit Community of Practice Maturity model provides a comprehensive framework upon which these discussions can be based. Colleagues self assess against the criteria in the model and are coached through the challenges they are facing.  

Understanding resources: the system leader does not lead change in a vacuum. Being aware of the cost of change is a major part of making the change credible.⁷ 

Supporting Trust Lead Professionals to understand the resources available to be able to lead change is also key in understanding system leadership. Asking questions (similar to the ones in the table on wicked problems, above) has been key in supporting colleagues to make decisions regarding efficiency and effectiveness. This new lens has helped colleagues to better strategic decisions that enhance the success of their groups.  

It is clear that a well-informed approach is best: how well do we know the conditions for Heads of Department in respective schools? What sort of resourcing challenges do they have that may be barriers to achieving declared priorities (I.e. departments under-staffed, capacity being reduced due to other, wider pressures)? Allowing for this greater understanding has allowed TLPs to make more effective, context-sensitive decisions and to be more versatile in their expectations of what is sensible and realistic to achieve.  

Understanding capacity: change does not happen without the capacity to embed the concept and the new delivery model into the system that the CEO is responsible for. 

Perhaps some of the most significant learning for TLPs has been gaining an understanding of capacity and also knowing how to build capacity within the parameters of the role. We all know the frustration of wanting an end goal or seeing the solution to a problem and not being able to drive it through to its completion due to a lack of capacity.  

As mentioned previously, meaningful change cannot happen without the capacity to embed and there is a risk then that new learning or planning is wasted. Seeing the Professional Learning Community as a platform for the delivery of new learning for professionals is a useful way to grow the capacity of the subject-specific teams. The most mature professional communities hold the following characteristics:  

The community has a momentum that is not reliant on one or two people Members take collective responsibility for community leadership

The community is a recognised part of the members’ regular routine The community on-boards new members into the organisation

The community has an explicit role in growing capability across the organisation

And so it is important that any community is structured in a such a way where they can build capacity in others. In this way, a co-owned agenda are a great way to ensure that colleagues are given a platform to share, seek advice or to open a discussion with their peers. When adding an item to a future agenda, colleagues are asked to determine the focus of the conversation and ‘type’ of conversation they would like to open, for example:  

Sharing good practice	8-10 minutes, with 5-10 minutes for questions and discussion. PPT/ resources should be shared virtually or on paper.
Discussion	5-6 minutes to present the ‘issue’/ key questions for discussion. Please give context for the discussion (i.e. ‘This is what’s on my mind at the moment and for these reasons… )Agree Build Challenge structure to be used
Seeking Advice and Support	5-6 minutes to present your current concern. Explain what steps have been taken so far and provide three key questions that would get you the advice you need.

The benefits of this are two-fold: members feel a sense of belonging and have control over the direction of their learning and it ensures that the group is meeting current need.  

To summarise 

Whilst there are complexities to operating subject networks/ groups at scale, it is clear that subject learning communities provide numerous opportunities for professional growth, but only when there is careful, context-specific consideration of their implementation and regular monitoring of their development and maturity. When these groups form part of a wider, comprehensive offer for staff professional development, we can move towards a sustainable culture of high-quality, Trust wide professional dialogue and learning.  

References