Research and practice · KPH Vienna/Lower Austria · since 2022
School development consulting
What schools expect from external advisers, what school leaders see as its effects — and how the first phase of a consulting process can be planned and evaluated
In Austria, school development consulting — external advisers who accompany a school through a development process — is largely the task of the universities of teacher education. Since 2022 Roland Bernhard has studied it with colleagues at KPH Vienna/Lower Austria and the University for Continuing Education Krems and within a nationwide working group on evaluating consulting in school development processes: three studies, a set of practical instruments and a project report for the school system.
Three studies and a toolkit
What we have learned so far
The contracting phase decides a lot
Whether a consulting process helps a school is often settled at the start: who wants what, what the school itself is prepared to change, and how success will be recognised. With Manfred Fede (University for Continuing Education Krems), Roland Bernhard developed instruments for planning and evaluating this contracting phase — first for the nationwide working group in 2022, then published in Schulpraxis entwickeln (2023).
Diverse settings need instructional development
A study with Eva Hofbauer on consulting and consultants in culturally diverse school settings in Austria (R&E-SOURCE, 2023) argues from the empirical insights that consulting has to reach the classroom: what schools in these settings need most is the development of teaching itself.
School leaders’ expectations and perceived effects
With Michaela Waldherr and Peter Eckel (KPH Vienna/Lower Austria), an exploratory triangulation study asked school leaders what they expect from consulting and which effects they perceive (R&E-SOURCE, 2025); first results were presented at the 7th Research Day of the PH-Verbund Nord-Ost in February 2025. A KPH project report (2025) adds school leaders’ perspectives on quality management, consulting and professional development.
The topic connects to two other lines of work: the SQTE project, whose eight recommendations for Austria include stronger support for school leaders, and the work with school leadership teams described under Character-Based Leadership.
Publications