History and Effects of Educational Change

1. EDUC6353 Leading and Managing
Educational Change
Topic 4: History and
Effects of Educational
Change
Acknowledgement: Jennifer Clement
1

2. Outline
Introduction
Three phases of educational change
Effects of 40 years of change
2

3. Phase 1: 1940s –
1970s
1st
Way: Innovation and Inconsistency (1945 – mid 1970s)
(Hargreaves & Shirley, 2009, pp. 3-5)
• Experimentation, innovation, free schooling, deschooling, child-
centred teaching
• Autonomy for teachers, high levels of trust
• PD haphazard and in workshop style, limited public expenditure
Interregnum (mid 1970s – late 1980s) complexity and contradiction
(pp. 6-8)
3

4. Phase 1: 1940s –
1970s (cont’d)
1945 – mid-1970s (Hargreaves & Goodson, 2006)
Age of innovation and optimism (p. 18)
• Baby-boomers energetic and enthusiastic, on “a world-changing
social mission” (p. 29)
• Staff rooms were places of conviviality and leaders were “larger
than life” (p. 29)
1960s and 1970s – Internal Change: Change initiated by teachers
(Goodson, 2001, p. 47)
4

5. Phase 1: 1940s –
1970s (cont’d)
Lieberman (2005) – “beginnings of a self conscious field of study of
educational change” (p. 1)
• 1940s and 1950s
• End of WWII, Cold War, Sputnik  increased desire for education
funding (pp. 1-2)
• 1960s
• Civil rights movement  concern for equality
• Curriculum reform (Bruner, 1960) (p. 3)
5

6. Phase 1: 1940s –
1970s (cont’d)
Lieberman (2005) (cont’d)
• 1970s
• Schools viewed as cultures  research on the contexts of teaching
and the need for change (Lortie, 1975, pp. 4-5)
• Research on innovation and implementation, policy and practice
and the process of change (pp. 5-6)
• Applied behavioural science – social scientists focussed on
relationships and groups, and on schools as organizations (pp. 6-
7)
6

7. Phase 2: 1980s –
1990s
2nd
Way: Markets and Standardization (late 1980s – late 1990s)
(Hargreaves & Shirley, 2009, pp. 8-12)
• Greater competition and higher expectations, prescriptive national
curricula, performance standards and achievement targets,
comprehensive data gathering
• Negative effect on student learning
• Loss of teacher autonomy, motivation and creativity
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8. Phase 2: 1980s –
1990s (cont’d)
Late 1970s – mid-1990s (Hargreaves & Goodson, 2006)
• Complexity and contradiction
• Contradictory reform imperatives, distributed
leadership (p. 30)
1980s and 1990s – External change (Goodson,
2001)
• Teachers responded to change initiated externally (p.
48)
8

9. Phase 3: 2000 
3rd
Way: Performance and Partnerships (late 1990s to present)
(Hargreaves & Shirley, 2009, pp. 12-19)
• “New Public Management” (p. 13) – side to side energy from the
public and professionals; funding, resources and support for PD,
leadership training, professional networks
• Government-set progress goals, league tables, parents’ choice of
schools
9

10. Phase 3: 2000 
(cont’d)
Mid-1990s – present (Hargreaves & Goodson, 2006)
• Age of standardization, marketization and globalization (p. 18, 30)
• “Accountability and performance targets, high-stakes testing and
intrusive intervention” (p. 30)
• Aging boomers increasingly cynical (p. 30)
• Staff rooms empty, leaders are managers (p. 31).
10

11. Phase 3: 2000 
(cont’d)
New Millenium – Integrated change (Goodson, 2006)
• Teachers’ personal goals must be integrated with internal missions
(p. 59)
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12. Effects of 40 Years of
Change
The basic grammar of schooling has remained unchanged over
decades:
• Division of time and space
• Classification of students
• Allocation to classrooms
• Splintering of knowledge into subjects
• Award of grades as evidence of learning
(Tyack & Cuban, 1995, p. 85)
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13. Effects of 40 Years of
Change (cont’d)
Why?
• Political support
• Easily replicable
• Embodied the ‘real school’
• Supported by laws, institutional custom, and cultural beliefs
(Tyack & Cuban, 1995, p. 107)
Two problems:
• Leaders lost touch with citizens
• Burnout among reformers (p. 108)
13

14. Effects of 40 Years of
Change (cont’d)
In Higher Education:
“Generally speaking, fundamental changes in
teaching and learning are rare…In most
universities, teaching continues in much the
same way as it has always done. The lecture still
reigns supreme.” (Lueddeke, 1999, pp. 240–
241).
14

15. Effects of 40 Years of
Change (cont’d)
• Hargreaves and Goodson (2006) report on a study of change
over time:
 200 interviews, observations
 perceptions and experiences of educational change
 8 high schools in US and Canada
 teachers and administrators who worked in the schools in the
1970s, 1980s, and 1990s
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16. Effects of 40 Years of
Change (cont’d)
The forces of change have:
• Reaffirmed traditional identities and practices
• Pulled innovative schools back toward the traditional
norm
• This effect is less where schools are professional
learning communities or have “an activist orientation”
(Hargreaves & Goodson, 2006, p. 3)
“In our study, standardization is proving to be
the ultimate enemy of enduring innovation and
sustainable learning communities” (p. 34).
16

17. 17
Goodson, I. (2001). Social histories of educational change. Journal of Educational
Change, 2(1), 45-63.
Hargreaves, A., & Goodson, I. (2006). Educational change over time? The
sustainability and nonsustainability of three decades of secondary school change
and continuity. Educational Administration Quarterly, 42(1), 3-41.
Hargreaves, A., & Shirley, D. (2009). The three ways of change. The fourth way:
The inspiring future for educational change (pp. 1-19). Thousand Oaks, CA:
Corwin Press.
Lieberman, A. (2005). Introduction: The growth of educational change as a field of
study: Understanding its roots and branches. In A. Lieberman (Ed.), The roots of
educational change: International handbook of educational change. (pp. 1-8).
Dordrecht ; New York: Springer.
Lueddeke, G. R. (1999). Toward a constructivist framework for guiding change
and innovation in higher education. Journal of Higher Education, 70(3), 235-260.
Tyack, D. B., & Cuban, L. (1995). Why the grammar of schooling persists.
Tinkering toward utopia: A century of public school reform (pp. 85-109).
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
References