Data teams or data coaches? How school organisation relates to principals' and teachers' perceptions of data use culture

Purpose Using data to inform educational decisions is increasingly expected of schools but remains challenging for principals and teachers. This challenge is particularly relevant in Germany, where schools have considerable autonomy in organising data use practices. Although organisational structures are widely recommended to foster data use culture, less is known about whether such approaches are jointly implemented and how they relate to principal- and teacher-perceived data use culture. This paper aims to address the aforementioned research gap. Design/methodology/approach We collected questionnaire data from 115 German schools (nprincipals = 115, nteachers = 1,691) and combined descriptive analyses, network analysis and (multilevel) regressions to investigate the co-occurrence, interrelations and associations of four organisational structures with data use culture, controlling for innovation readiness and professional experience. Findings About 71% of schools had implemented at least one organisational structure; 46% implemented two or more. Data meetings were most prevalent and frequently co-occurred with data teams. Internal data coaches were conditionally associated with both data meetings and data teams, whereas external data coaches showed no unique associations. In regression models, data teams and internal data coaches were uniquely associated with principals' perceptions of data use culture. Only innovation readiness was associated with teachers' perceptions. Originality/value This study advances research on organisational support for data use by examining multiple organisational structures in concert and by distinguishing principals' from teachers' perceptions. Findings do not suggest that any specific organisational structure is universally preferable or that schools should implement as many as possible. Rather, they point to the need to consider which structures address whose data-related needs and to foster innovation readiness within existing structures.