Restructuring is an international phenomenon, and great stress is placed on the role of the innovative principal in the process. This book offers insights into the ways in which six principals go about leading the change process in their schools, and looks for ways of understanding why and how principals behave and think in the way they do. Its edited topical life history approach identifies key events, experiences and significant others in the lives of the case study managers, and shows how these have shaped the way they implement changes to curriculum, teaching and learning in their schools.

Restructuring in the Classroom goes into the classrooms of three elementary schools to take a detailed look at how teachers responded to changes in structure in their schools. The authors interviewed principals, teachers, parents, support staff, and district personnel to produce in-depth case studies of schools at various stages of restructuring, showing what the school had done to change its structure and how those changes had occurred. Selecting four teachers in each school for closer observation and discussion, the authors reveal how those teachers responded to the changes around them in their day-to-day practice in the classroom. They show, for example, how teaching practice is or is not affected by changes in the way students are grouped for learning, in the way teachers relate to groups of students and to each other, and in the way time is allocated to subject matter.

A school leadership model for surviving hyper-change From social media to evolving safety issues to constant school reform, today’s school leaders face unprecedented disruption. How can educators prepare students for a globalized world when many institutions are not ready for the constantly changing 21st century? With an eye on the past and a vision for the future, Carter and White draw the blueprint for adapting schools to ever-changing times. • A comprehensive history of disruption in American schools as a lens for understanding accelerated change • Practical exercises and real-life examples for reshaping education in the 21st century • A grounded examination of radical disruptions schools will face in the years to come

This is a reprint of a classic work of research on innovation first published in 1989. Resulting from the Minnesota Innovation Research Program (MIRP), the book includes a revised and expanded Preface and will complement the three other books growing out of the program, all published by Oxford--The Innovation Journey (1999), Organizational Change Processes: Theory and Methods for Research (2000), and Handbook of Organizational Change and Development (coming 2001).

Social Network Theory and Educational Change offers a provocative and fascinating exploration of how social networks in schools can impede or facilitate the work of education reform. Drawing on the work of leading scholars, the book comprises a series of studies examining networks among teachers and school leaders, contrasting formal and informal organizational structures, and exploring the mechanisms by which ideas, information, and influence flow from person to person and group to group. The case studies provided in the book reflect a rich variety of approaches and methodologies, showcasing the range and power of this dynamic new mode of analysis. An introductory chapter places social network theory in context and explains the basic tools and concepts, while a concluding chapter points toward new directions in the field. Taken together, they make a powerful statement: that the success or failure of education reform ultimately is not solely the result of technical plans and blueprints, but of the relational ties that support or constrain the pace, depth, and direction of change. This unique volume provides an invaluable introduction to an emerging and increasingly important field of education research.

Schools are described as social systems whose primary organizational features are closely interrelated. Methods for coordinating these features are presented so schools can restructure their bureaucratic orientation. The interrelated nature of a school's various subsystems is highlighted to point out how they can be coordinated so genuine restructuring can be achieved and maintained. Each model of organization in a school—bureaucratic, systems, and communal—displays its own distinguishing characteristics, and each one governs different aspects of people's behavior in schools. The decisive questions are: which behavioral patterns of the people in the school will be governed by each model, and what will be the relative extent to which each model influences the nature of the relationships and educational processes in the school? Restructured schools emphasize the systems and communal models in their organizational and instructional norms, with bureaucratic norms mainly governing routine administrative procedures, while in traditional schools the bureaucratic model yields decisive influence on curricular structure, classroom teaching models, and staff relations, as well as on administrative features of the school. This book spells out a systems and communal approach to organization, curriculum, and instruction. It describes how to adopt an investigative approach to learning, often with cooperative groups of students, coupled with a trans-disciplinary approach to curricular structure and with a restructured schedule of classes to allow for in-depth study of broad intellectual domains.

The International Handbook of Educational Change is a state of the art collection of the most important ideas and evidence of educational change. The book brings together some of the most influential thinkers and writers on educational change. It deals with issues like educational innovation, reform, restructuring, culture-building, inspection, school-review, and change management. It asks why some people resist change and what their resistance means. It looks at how men and women, older teachers and younger teachers, experience change differently. It looks at the positive aspects of change but does not hesitate to raise uncomfortable questions about many aspects of educational change either. It looks critically and controversially at the social, economic, cultural and political forces that are driving educational change. School leaders, system administration, teacher leaders, consultants, facilitators, educational researchers, staff developers and change agents of all kinds will find this book an indispensable resource for guiding them to both classic and cutting-edge understandings of educational change, no other work provides as comprehensive coverage of the field of educational change.

This book brings together the literature in a field which may define the 21st century. Can economic and technological progress continue with educational systems which seem to answer to no one but themselves and which output graduates who can barely read and write and who have only the faintest clue how to use a map? This bibliography provides access via Title, Author and Subject Indexes. Contents: Educational Accountability; Educational Change; Educational Equalisation; Educational Leadership; Educational Planning; Educational Indicates.

The mission of the International Journal of Educational Reform (IJER) is to keep readers up-to-date with worldwide developments in education reform by providing scholarly information and practical analysis from recognized international authorities. As the only peer-reviewed scholarly publication that combines authors’ voices without regard for the political affiliations perspectives, or research methodologies, IJER provides readers with a balanced view of all sides of the political and educational mainstream. To this end, IJER includes, but is not limited to, inquiry based and opinion pieces on developments in such areas as policy, administration, curriculum, instruction, law, and research. IJER should thus be of interest to professional educators with decision-making roles and policymakers at all levels turn since it provides a broad-based conversation between and among policymakers, practitioners, and academicians about reform goals, objectives, and methods for success throughout the world. Readers can call on IJER to learn from an international group of reform implementers by discovering what they can do that has actually worked. IJER can also help readers to understand the pitfalls of current reforms in order to avoid making similar mistakes. Finally, it is the mission of IJER to help readers to learn about key issues in school reform from movers and shakers who help to study and shape the power base directing educational reform in the U.S. and the world.