Change Forces: Probing the Depths of Educational Reform (School Development and the Management of Change, 10)

By Michael Fullan

Book Overview

Knowledge of the processes of educational change is said to be the missing ingredient in attempts to bring about educational innovation and reform. Whether these efforts involve grass roots innovation or large-scale societal reform, failure to understand and act on existing knowledge of the change process has accounted for the widespread lack of success in making educational improvements. This volume analyzes what is known about successful or productive change processes, and identifies corresponding action strategies at the individual, school, local and state levels. Included in this book is a major treatment of the topic of the 'ethics of planned change', a neglected topic in recent literature, especially since strategies for intervening in the change process are receiving more attention. This book is intended to be used by teachers in training and in service, teacher trainers, educational researchers, education historians and administrators.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1850008264
• ISBN13: 9781850008262
• Release Date: January 1993
• Publisher: Routledge
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.0" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Change Forces: Probing the Depths of Educational Reform

This book came across my desk at just the right time for a teacher, at the end of the school year and when I had the summer to read and absorb. I found it to be an afirming presentation of the process of educational reform, in that it described the process of change as non-linear that cannot be preplanned. Fullan feels that if by the time a carefully preplanned initiative has begun, the circumstances that influence the change have been altered and are no longer what needs to be considered. Rather change is the evolution of ideas and is in constant flux. Responding to these influences is the process of change. A strong school/school district is able to respond as it evolves and sees this process as the challenge rather than a disturbance. Fullan delineates the characteristics of a school staff that is able to respond to this environment. He talks about the need for collaboration but also supports the need for a strong sense of individuality for any working staff to work effectively and change."Change Forces" offered me a comfortable model for school change, as well as a functional idea of how to work together as a school organization.