ED373391 EA025979
Title: Change Forces: Probing the Depths of Educational Reform. School
Development and the Management of Change Series: 10.
Author(s): Fullan, Michael
Pages: 174
Publication Date: 1994
ISBN: 1-85000-826-4
Available from: EDRS Price MF01/PC07 Plus Postage.
Availability: Falmer Press, Taylor & Francis Inc., 1900 Frost
Road, Suite 101, Bristol, PA 19007.
Language: English
Document Type: Book (010); Guides--Non-classroom (055)
Geographic Source: U.S.; Pennsylvania
Journal Announcement: RIEJAN1995
Debunking
popular reform efforts, this book argues that education reformers
are fighting a fruitless uphill battle. Neither top-down regulation
nor locally based reforms will transform schooling. The insurmountable
problem is juxtaposing a continuous change theme with a continuous,
conservative system that defies change. In partnership with all
community agencies, educators must initiate the creation of learning
societies as part of a larger social agenda. Following an introductory
chapter, chapter 2 discusses the essential partnership of moral
purpose with change agentry. Chapter 3 treats the complexity of
the change process, identifying eight basic lessons of a new change
paradigm: (1) you can't mandate or force change; (2) change is a
journey, not a blueprint; (3) problems are our friends; (4) vision
and strategic planning come later; (5) individualism and collectivism
must have equal power; (6) neither centralization nor decentralization
works by itself; (7) connections with the wider environment is critical
for success; and (8) every person is a change agent. Chapters 4
and 5 discuss the school as a learning organization and the two-way
relationship between a learning organization and its environment.
Chapter 6 argues that continuous teacher education is essential
to produce moral change agents. The final chapter treats the productive
individual's role in shaping and checking schooling and other social
institutions. Contains 168 references and a subject index. (MLH)
Descriptors: *Agency Cooperation; *Change Agents; *Educational Change;
*Educational Environment; Elementary Secondary Education; Misconceptions;
*Moral Values; *Organizational Change; Resistance to Change; Teacher
Education
Identifiers: Chaos Theory; *Learning Communities
