Promoting quality and equity: An exploratory case study of a primary school in England exploring barriers and facilitators in implementing the Dynamic Approach to school improvement

A number of studies have been conducted to identify the impact of the Dynamic Approach to School Improvement (DASI) on student outcomes, using mainly quantitative and experimental designs. However, few studies explored the impact of DASI in schools facing challenging circumstances using qualitative methods This in turn restricts our ability to provide in-depth and detailed explanations of how, why and under which conditions DASI works in improving student outcomes in socially disadvantaged schools. This study provides an in-depth understanding of the teachers' perspectives of the facilitators and barriers they encountered while implementing DASI in a primary school in England with a relatively high percentage of socially disadvantaged students. Data were gathered from teachers using semi-structured interviews at the beginning, during and the end of the intervention. The results of the study highlight important changes in a number of elements related with teacher, school and DASI characteristics.