Leading Change in Education

Change drivers

Activity

What experience have you had in leading or engaging with change?

What have you found particularly useful in previous modules?

What do you hope to learn from this module?

Activity

Look at the card which you have been given.

Compare the quotations: to what extent are they similar or contradictory?

Do you agree with the quotations and why? (If not all, which?)

How far do the quotes relate to your own experience of change?

Modernity Enlightenment thinkers tried to develop

“objective science, universal morality and law”… and “a rational organization of everyday social life” (Habermas, 1981, p.9)

This view was criticised by Lyotard (1982) for being restricted, and for suggesting that “knowledge and truth were based on abstract principles and theoretical constructs, rather than direct, subjective human experience” (Rust, 1991, p.615)

Postmodernity

Postmodernism “rejects universalising modes of thought and global narratives; understands knowledge as localised; and seeks above all to else to undermine the universal legitimacy of notions such as truth and legitimacy” (Morrison, 2007, p.20).

Postmodernity

“Postmodern criticism is so crucial because questioning the basic tenets of modernity challenges the basis of the world’s recent social and cultural history, on which we have come to rely, including the meaning of modern schooling throughout the world” (Rust, 1991, p.625).

QuestionsRead pages 4 to 11 (starting with ‘The paradox of change and continuity’) of the chapter, ‘Good schools if this were 1965’ and then answer the following questions:

What is the paradox of change and continuity (pp.4-5)? What is the current emphasis in terms of change vs

continuity in relation to (i) educational policy and (ii) parental expectations?

17 years after this chapter was written, are teachers treated as “knowledge workers, professional educators and leaders” (p.6)?

In the paradox of quality-equity, which has been most supported by policy-makers: quality or equity?

Stoll and Fink (1996) draw attention to issues of poverty, gender and race. Has there been any improvement in relation to these issues? What would you identify as the most important issues for educational policy-makers today?

Questions

Compare the causes of change identified in the chapter, with Pennington’s list:

social, economic and political pressures discovery and technological innovations new consumer demands shifts in market patterns changes in policy, regulations and legal

frameworks environmental disasters.” Pennington

(2003, p. 4)

Drivers for change in education

Ofsted: http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/

resources/sir-michael-wilshaw-her-majestys-chief-inspector-introduces-ofsted-annual-report-201112

SWOT analysis

STRENGTHS OPPORTUNITIES

WEAKNESSES THREATS

References Habermas, J. (1981) Modernity versus Postmodernity New

German Critique, vol.22, Winter, pp. 3-14 Lyotard, J-F (1982) A memorial of Marxism Esprit, January Morrison, M. (2007) What do we mean by educational

research? In M. Coleman and A. Briggs (eds) Research methods in educational leadership and management. London: Paul Chapman, pp. 13-36

Pennington, G. (2003) Guidelines for Promoting and Facilitating Change Retrieved 13.1.09 from http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/York/documents/ourwork/institutions/change_academy/id296_Promoting_and_facilitating_change.pdf

Rust, V. (1991) Postmodernism and its comparative education implications Comparative Education Review, vol. 35, no.4, pp. 610-626

Stoll, L. and Fink, D. (1996) Changing Our Schools Buckingham: Open University Press