Educational Change

ABSTRACT. The paper opens by asking sharp questions about the current vogue for consulting students about various aspects of their experience of schooling. The unwit-ting manipulation often embedded in much of this activity is contrasted with a radical approach known as ‘Students as Researchers. ’ Having described the still current joint work in a UK high school that has developed since 1996 the paper moves on to consider the transformational nature of the project and ends by offering two frameworks: one suggests a number of key questions pertinent to any evaluation of the institutional conditions for student voice; the other provides an overarching conceptual re-appraisal of the domain. Practical examples are given and the compelling nature of the “Students as Researchers” approach reaffirmed.

In most jurisdictions around the world,governments, in the name of economiccompetitiveness, have imposed comprehensive andquite dramatic changes on state schools. Mostchanges require a more centralized and rigorouscurriculum for pupils, a plethora ofaccountability measures and mandatoryin-service for teachers, and carefully definedand more onerous responsibilities for schoolleaders. The province of Ontario is nodifferent. Since 1995, its educational systemhas experienced quite revolutionary changes– all instituted with ‘break-neck’ speed. At thesame time most schools in Ontario are employinginternal change strategies to address theseoutside pressures. These change forces havecoalesced to redefine the work and lives ofteachers and school leaders in many intendedand unintended ways. There is a substantialliterature on both external and internal changeforces, but very little has been written aboutthe conjunction of these change forces with thepersonal side of change for teachers andleaders. Based on two studies undertaken by theInternational Centre for Educational Change atthe Ontario Institute for Studies inEducation/University of Toronto, this paperexamines the ‘unintended consequences’ of thesechange forces on the teachers and principals ofone secondary school in Ontario, Canada. Theteachers and leaders of Lord Byron High Schoolare not averse to change and are generallyquite content to do whatever is in the bestinterests of their students. The school has along history of innovation and change and areputation for attending to a wide diversity ofstudent needs.Through the use of multiple conceptual lenses,this paper addresses the ‘unintendedconsequences’ of systemic change to the schooland its teachers and principals. At a time whenteacher shortages and teacher morale aregrowing problems for many educationaljurisdictions, this investigation will point toan urgent need to build better bridges ofunderstanding between policy makers and policyimplementers, and for researchers to provideresearch that is more sensitive to the work andlives of ‘real’ people in ‘real’ schools.

This paper reports an evaluation of Quality Teaching Action Learning (QTAL) projects conducted at New South Wales (NSW), Australia public (state) primary and secondary schools and explores how distributed leadership facilitated and was an outcome of the QTAL projects. The evaluation encompassed all 50 projects at 82 NSW public schools, and nine of these schools were selected and visited for case study by members of the evaluation team. Data were provided through individual project progress reports, journals, interviews and case studies. Schools used funding provided under the Australian Government Quality Teaching Program to release teams of teachers to undertake approved Quality Teaching Action Learning Projects using the NSW model of pedagogy as a framework. Projects were broadly successful in achieving their aims and distributed leadership and teacher learning were important factors in project planning, implementation, and success. Projects resulted in enhanced distributed leader...

"Istraživački projekat predstavljen u ovoj monografiji predstavlja vredan doprinos pedagoškoj nauci i obrazovnoj praksi. Sagledavanje prošlosti i vizije budućnosti obrazovanja u našoj zemlji iz perspektive ključnih aktera obrazovanja predstavlja izuzetno složenu i dinamičnu problematiku koja se ne sme zaobići prilikom kreiranja budućih obrazovnih politika. Primena metodologije scenarija, kao aktuelnog i inovativnog istraživačkog pristupa u proučavanju pravaca razvoja obrazovanja, biće inspirativna ne samo za naučnu i stručnu javnost, već i za širu čitalačku publiku.

Dr Vera Spasenović
(iz recenzije)



Teorijska i metodološka zasnovanost projekta, korišćenje pouzdanih izvora pri oceni stanja u obrazovnom sistemu i niz zanimljivih i dobro protumačenih rezultata ukazuju da je autorski tim izveo istraživanje koje bi moglo da pokrene nove ideje i način njihove realizacijhe u promenama obrazovnog sistema. Dobar stil pisanja i jasnoća u prikazivanju rezultata, kao i savremena literatura uz svaki prilog, dodatne su vrednosti ove studije.

(Prof. dr Sulejman Hrnjica)
"

In a time of rapid policy and curriculum change, teachers must be knowledge workers who continue to develop professionally. Professional learning networks (PLNs) offer teachers the opportunity to develop professionally by positioning them as inquirers into their own practice and authors and agents of situated innovation. Six examples of PLNs are introduced in this book to illustrate key attributes of PLNs that build educators’ ownership, practice, and expertise. Also highlighted is the potential of PLNs to address questions of equity, both for educators working in remote and rural communities who have limited access to professional development and other resources, and diverse learners and equity-seeking communities (e.g., Indigenous communities, non-dominant cultural groups). Scholar, practitioner, and policy audiences can benefit greatly from the PLNs described here and draw from these case studies to inform equity-oriented PLNs centering the importance of teachers, students, engagement, collaboration, and rural place in educational transformation efforts.

Reforms and their contexts have unsettledboundaries. Actors construct themselves ascontexts for reforms in part by advancingdefinitions of those reforms: Reformsthemselves both presuppose and createcontextual frames. Drawing on actor networktheory and related approaches, this paperexamines the play of context and reform interms of efforts to construct and stabilizeeducational networks of differentconfigurations and scale. The fall and rise oftwo attempts at statewide curriculum reform inVirginia (USA) provide illustrations of how thenature of reform artifacts and the networksthrough which they circulate shape the politicsof reform.

For those of us who stay in the classroom and don’t go on to administration or the professoriate, teacher professional development is often so utterly useless. I have regularly been part of sessions where I have been taught to do things I have been doing for many years. On occasion I have been told things that I know are wrong. I can remember in one large school system where I taught briefly, teachers sneaked out of a professional development day through the bathroom—I was afraid to try it and have regretted it to this day! The end result of much professional development, particularly for experienced teachers, is simply fury.However I have also been very fortunate. I teach in a school where teachers have a good deal of control and where they have time and support for teamwork and collaboration. As a result this is a school where the professional conversation is unusually serious and thoughtful.Twice in my career I have been involved in multi year professional development seminars commi

Schools have been caught up in responding to the calls of external accountability. This has challenged school leaders to establish data gathering practices that ultimately lend themselves to creating school wide instructional systems to impact teaching and learning and offer a consistent instructional approach. This paper outlines how one school established a data driven approach to improve teacher performance by focusing on key elements using a literature focused approach as a catalyst for driving new innovation. The paper considers how a data driven focus (DDF) allows leaders to intentionally and systematically improve student learning. The paper begins by unpacking the new focus on instructional leadership. It unveils how leaders are required to create the foundation to develop a DDF as a vehicle to facilitate information about student achievement within the school. The second part of the paper reports on the change process used to implement DDF as guided by key elements. It entails a 6-step cycle involving 1) developing a desire for change, 2) reflection on data, 3) aligning school programs & curricula, 4) Understanding by Design instructional practices and professional development, 5) provision of feedback, and 6) nurturing teacher implementation. It reviews how one school, through the focus of improving PEOPLE: International Journal of Social Sciences ISSN 2454-5899 Available Online at: http://grdspublishing.org/ 543 instruction and intentionally using key literature-based concepts, developed a raised awareness for using curriculum and assessment data to guide decision making. This paper provides a rich example of how a school can facilitate and sustain a data-based decision-making culture in schools. The paper concludes that being a data-focused school is a possibility for each and every school.

Ο ρόλος του εκπαιδευτικού είναι καθοριστικός για την αποτελεσματικότητα μίας αλλαγής ενός Αναλυτικού Προγράμματος Σπουδών, αφού είναι αυτός που θα κάνει πράξη αυτή την αλλαγή στη σχολική τάξη. Η παρούσα μελέτη διερευνά, μέσα από μία πανελλήνια έρευνα, τις στάσεις και τις αντιλήψεις των εν ενεργεία θεολόγων εκπαιδευτικών απέναντι στις αλλαγές των Αναλυτικών Προγραμμάτων Σπουδών στο Μάθημα των Θρησκευτικών. Η έρευνα πραγματοποιήθηκε διαδικτυακά από τις αρχές του Μαΐου μέχρι τις αρχές του Ιουνίου του 2019, μέσω ερωτηματολογίων κλειστού τύπου δομημένων με βάση την κλίμακα μέτρησης Likert. Η ανάλυση των δεδομένων έγινε με το στατιστικό εργαλείο SPSS Statistics 20. Στο παρόν άρθρο παρουσιάζονται τα ευρήματα της έρευνας, αναφορικά με την εφαρμογή των αλλαγών του Α.Π.Σ. από τους θεολόγους εκπαιδευτικούς. Το συμπέρασμα της έρευνας είναι ότι, αν και οι θεολόγοι συμμερίζονται στην πλειοψηφία τους τις παιδαγωγικές προτεραιότητες των αλλαγών, διαπιστώνεται μία δυσκολία εφαρμογής τους στη σχολική τάξη. Αναδεικνύεται, κατά συνέπεια, η αναγκαιότητα των επιμορφώσεων ως απαραίτητη προϋπόθεση για την αποτελεσματική έκβαση της εκπαιδευτικής αλλαγής.

This position paper provides an alternative theoretical framework of sustainable second-order educational change. Here, sustainability refers to: 1) substantial changes made that affect the core of educators’ everyday practice; 2) a longitudinal process that begins when educators contemplate making changes and ends when satisfactory achievement on the other characteristics is reached and overt learning efforts are stopped; 3) a process of individual and organizational learning as well as changes in behaviors; resulting in 4) significant positive effects on student outcomes. Thus, this definition focuses on educators and their schools, not on professional development programs. Methodological considerations are provided.

Most published journal articles describing professional development (PD) initiatives for K-12 ures of hightheoretical framework arisen in content areas with more tradition in PD research (e.g., mathematics and science education). The goal of this review was to examine the musicspecific PD literature using this framework. We reviewed seven mainstream music education journals from 1990 to 2015, identifying 17 articles reporting on a total of 24 PD initiatives (e.g., workshops, courses, programs, school-based PD). Results show interesting differences in the extent to which the different features considered (i.e., content focus, active learning opportunities, collective participation, duration, and coherence) are exhibited in these musicspecific initiatives. This analysis is relevant for music education theory, policy, and practice, as it suggests concrete ways of improving the quality of the PD offered to school music teachers.

This research report documents the nature and impact of a Consortium of 10 school boards a liated with the Council of Ontario Directors of Education (CODE) in leading bold and sophisticated change for today’s students, in one of the highest performing and most culturally diverse educational systems in the world – the province of Ontario in Canada. Over more than a decade, these boards built on an earlier approach by all of the province’s 72 boards to advance deep learning not by imposing reform from the top, or by supporting a multitude of initiatives among teachers and schools at the bottom of the system, by what educators themselves describe as “Leading from the Middle” (LfM).

The book "The New Meaning of Educational Change" is highly effective to read for such leaders of educational organizations who miserably fail in bringing and consolidating the change process. It is equally important for the teachers to go through this book in detail so as to know their part in the change process and in complex school systems. Fullan has effectively highlighted major educational change problems which happen in most of the contexts, and he has successfully engaged readers with different aspect by providing insightful and anecdotes. The book is packed with lots of critical information related to change which requires reflecting and relating with our own context to see what actually happens. For those of us focused on educating, researching, helping, and driving school and educational system change, Michael Fullan has filled in as pioneer, guide, and tutor.

Les élites arabes et leur rôles dans le développement-Large contribution d'un chef de file de la pensée arabe moderne : AEK ABID Préambule J'ai sélectionné ce travail d'équipe parce qu'il porte les empreintes de Aek Abid dont la continuité apparait dans son ouvrage publié récemment sur le site culturel mlfcham, le lien est : Voici les mots-clés dans ce document très précieux que vous trouverez dans ce travail d'équipe et qui démontrent continuité et convergence dans l'esprit de Aek Abid : Recadrage, relations interpersonnelles, institutions politiques et démocratie ; Cela nous ramène à cette conclusion : « « La disponibilité soudaine d'un savoir largement supérieur en propulsant notre pensée en avant sans le bénéfice d'une assimilation cohérente et progressive de toutes les étapes intermédiaires ayant amené ce résultat peut avoir des conséquences véritablement malheureuses (école de Palo Alto)». Le danger pour les pays arabes est de ne pas pouvoir s'intégrer dans une phase de transition entre la société actuelle et la société future, par manque de contribution de leurs élites dont le travail préparatoire est souligné dans ce document : il suffit de le lire puis de l'appliquer avant que ce soit trop tard. Amin Elsaleh – 17/06/2018 CRASC Centre national de recherche en anthropologie sociale et culturelle Division de recherche « socio anthropologie de l'éducation et des systèmes de formation » Projet de recherche N°132/P.E/CRASC/11 du 01/07/11 au 30/06/2014

This paper is based on research developed in two public high schools of Montevideo, aimed to identify their main relational patterns, with focus on bullying traits and the possible influence of family variables and school climate on relational problems through interviews, focus groups, document analysis and a questionnaire applied to a sample of 643 cases, a 45% of the total population in both high schools. A general conceptual framework is presented, including school environment, school violence and bullying. The questionnaire’s analysis allowed to define four kinds of violence: verbal violence; social exclusion; and physical violence against the person or against objects. Several associations were found between the occurrence of violence and the students gender, the family involvement of the student, the presence of adults in different school spaces, and the student`s academic condition. The paper concludes that a mean of 10% of the students in both schools suffer bullying, and that students with better grades suffer three times more violence than those in a worse academic situation, among other findings. Several policy recommendations stem from the findings.

Knowmad Society explores the future of learning, work, and how we relate with each other in a world driven by accelerating change, value networks, and the rise of knowmads.

Knowmads are nomadic knowledge workers: Creative, imaginative, and innovative people who can work with almost anybody, anytime, and anywhere. The jobs associated with 21st century knowledge and innovation workers have become much less specific concerning task and place, but require more value-generative applications of what they know. The office as we know it is gone. Schools and other learning spaces will follow next.

In this book, nine authors from three continents, ranging from academics to business leaders, share their visions for the future of learning and work. Educational and organizational implications are uncovered, experiences are shared, and the contributors explore what it’s going to take for individuals, organizations, and nations to succeed in Knowmad Society.