Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Reframing Schools (The Process of Change in Schools)

An old german proverb says: "To change and to change for the better may be two separate things!"

There are many problems in creating change in any level in a school system that can be summarized as follows:
1) Faulty internal maps of change 
2) Difficult Solutions
3) Superficial solutions
4) Misunderstandings of resistance
5) Failure to institutionalize change
6) Misuse of knowledge of the change process

The anxieties resulting from change can be in the form of:
  • Lack of knowledge (Teachers may resist change if they do not have any information on the innovation or know how the change will effect what their current job)
  • Fear of losing “status quo”
  • Rigidities in one’s thinking
  • Lack of expertise
  • Fear of losing control
Change strategies that are mostly used in a school system can be divided into 3 main categories:
  • Empirical-Rational (Rational people will make correct choice when presented with data)
  • Normative/Re-educative (Group consensus strategy—changing the norms of the group   e.g. their attitudes, values, skills)
  • Power-Coercive (An Or else attitude!)
Research indicates that Innovation is an essential element in organizational change
  • Participants must be involved in decision making if ideas and activities are to be innovative
  • Schools stifle innovation as a result of its hierarchy of decision making & centralization & standardization
  • In many schools, teachers and students have little voice in decision making and teachers feel that many things are imposed upon them without their input
  • In most bureaucracies, rules not professional judgment govern decision making. Some disadvantages of school rules are that they migh narrow choices, stifle creative problem solving, prohibit experimentation, stifle innovative thinking and action and do not allow for the “mistakes and back to the drawing board mentality”
Schools change when:
  • Clear goals are accepted by the participants
  • Adequate and distortion free communication flows in all directions
  • All participants have equal influence
  • Human resources are effectively used
  • There is a clear vision of what the organization is all about
  • There is High Morale
  • There is Innovativeness
  • Autonomy is present
  • Adaptability is present
  • There are problem-solving strategies and procedures in place
Some useful websites:

Center for Education Reform

The Center for Comprehensive School Reform & Improvement 

Center for Reform of School Systems

Pioneer Institute: Center for School Reform

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