A systematic review of facilitators and barriers to school staff development projects using the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research

Abstract This paper is a systematic literature review (SLR) of research published between 2009 and 2022 that aims to identify facilitators and barriers to implementing staff development projects (SDPs) in schools in England. Twelve research papers fulfilled all inclusion criteria and were each evaluated as being at least medium‐quality research. The included research papers were analysed using the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR), which was adapted by introducing a novel metric: the ‘weighted valence score’ (WVS). Findings identified 36 facilitators and 15 barriers of varying significance to implementing SDPs in schools. Eight facilitators and four barriers, each representing the upper quartile of the facilitator and barrier ranges respectively, were selected as the most influential on the SDP implementation processes within the 12 selected studies. These were organised into descriptive themes: three facilitator themes were ‘leadership and relational dynamics’, ‘engagement and knowledge’, and ‘innovation and design’; two barrier themes were ‘competing priorities’ and ‘complexity’. The importance of contextual factors, leadership and social dynamics within SDP implementation are discussed with reference to complexity theory, along with practical implications for schools implementing SDPs.