This book is a reflection on the complexity of educational change in China through the lens of a senior academic who has occupied many diverse roles in the academe, from political worker to dean of faculty. It narrates his journey through different layers of historical, societal, and institutional transformation while trying to make sense of his own life and work. In this book, the professor is situated at the intersection of history, culture, and society where the search for personal (...) identity becomes a lifelong project. Landmarks in his intellectual journey are used to elucidate the effects of early influences, significant others, challenges and opportunities, human agency, and professional capital. His story illustrates the vicissitudes of a long career that combines scholarship and administration, and offers lessons for survival, advancement, and leadership in the fluid environment of Chinese higher education institutions. (shrink)

Divided into four sections, this book addresses the key themes: What has been the impact of educational change?

Higher education has been changing radically in recent years, with increasing numbers of students, and complaints about declining standards. This volume brings together leading intellectuals from the US and UK to examine the issues involved.

This paper uses Actor Network Theory to examine two cases of device-mediated educational change, one involving a computer-assisted interactive video module that provided a half-hour of instruction for a university course, the other an assistive communication device that proved a supposedly retarded pre-school child to be intelligent. The paper explores how device construction instigated by middle-level organizational workers can ramify into organizational change, and extends Actor Network theory by augmenting some of its conceptual tools. I argue that the organizational (...) change processes initiated by work on the devices played out in non-linear ways across the decades-long careers of their makers, and that to understand them we not only have to look across such extended time frames, but must also consider how agency and identity positions emerge and shift over time through the mediation of devices. (shrink)

This chapter contains sections titled: Studying the Complexity of Educational Change Developing a Conceptual Framework Lessons for Modeling from Real Cases A Philosophical Note Conclusions References.

__Social Network Theory and Educational Change_ offers a provocative and fascinating exploration of how social networks in schools can impede or facilitate the work of education reform._ Drawing on the work of leading scholars, the book comprises a series of studies examining networks among teachers and school leaders, contrasting formal and informal organizational structures, and exploring the mechanisms by which ideas, information, and influence flow from person to person and group to group. The case studies provided in the book (...) reflect a rich variety of approaches and methodologies, showcasing the range and power of this dynamic new mode of analysis. An introductory chapter places social network theory in context and explains the basic tools and concepts, while a concluding chapter points toward new directions in the field. Taken together, they make a powerful statement: that the success or failure of education reform ultimately is not solely the result of technical plans and blueprints, but of the relational ties that support or constrain the pace, depth, and direction of change. This unique volume provides an invaluable introduction to an emerging and increasingly important field of education research. (shrink)

The appearance of mass media and a versatile medium of videos can serve the convenience and instructive information for children; on the other hand, it could abet them in implicit image consumption. Now is the time for kids' to be in need of thinking power which enables them to make a choice, applications andcriticism of information within such visual cultures. In spite of these social changes, the realities are that our curriculum still doesn't meet a learner's demand properly. This research, (...) in this context, is aimed at looking out on the currently implemented art appreciation learning process in a critical fashion, and also aimed at suggesting a plan for visual culture learning by applying the philosophy program for kids as a new alternative. The purpose of such education is toenhance the capability to solve a variety of problems they are facing in the course of daily life by reflecting their matter of concern in a curriculum. What we have to pay attention to in visual culture learning is 'visual literacy.' Such an interpretative faculty of a critical reading of images is a must especially when kids should make a judgment of value hidden in images in their daily events, make an analysis of an ideological message and make an information-oriented decision. Therefore, learners have to enrich their higher-order thinking power as well as critical thinking faculty in modern society. If there is no objection to these social surroundings, it is quite natural that philosophy education, which forms a base of a higher-order thinking for children should be handled significantly at school. (shrink)

How might we usefully apply concepts and procedures derived from the study of other complex dynamical systems to analyzing systemic change in education? In this article we begin to define possible agendas for research toward developing systematic frameworks and shared terminology for such a project. We illustrate the plausibility of defining such frameworks and raise the question of the relation between such frameworks and the crucial task of aggregating data across ‘systemic experiments’, such as those conducted under the Urban Systemic (...) Initiative sponsored by the US National Science Foundation. Our discussion includes a review of key issues identified by groups of researchers regarding Defining the System, Structural Analysis, Relationships Among Subsystems and Levels, Drivers for Change, and Modeling Methods. (shrink)

_Distrust characterizes much of the current political discourse in the United States today._ It shapes our feelings about teachers, schools, and policies. In _Distrust and Educational Change_, Katherine Schultz argues that distrust—and the failure to recognize and address it—significantly contributes to the failure of policies meant to improve educational systems. The strategies the United States has chosen to enact reform engender distrust, and in so doing, undermine the conditions that enable meaningful educational change. In situations in which (...) distrust—rather than trust—predominates, teachers and principals are reluctant to transform their educational practice. Through a set of illustrative stories_,_ Schultz analyzes the role of distrust in the failure of educational change and transformation. By creating a taxonomy that includes three kinds of distrust—relational, structural, and contextual—she suggests ways to analyze, understand, and discuss the impact of distrust on schools, districts, and large-scale educational processes. She concludes by offering concrete recommendations for addressing distrust in classrooms, schools, and districts; discusses the roles played by teachers, principals, parents, and students in building trust; and points to schools and programs where distrust has been acknowledged and repaired successfully. By creating spaces that honor human dignity, Schultz argues, it is possible to replace a culture of systemic distrust built over time. (shrink)

This book takes a look at American educational history and focuses on the collaboration between teachers, policymakers, philosophers, and activists.

This book presents and discusses an approach to action research to help reverse discriminatory and exclusionary practices in education. Insider accounts of action research will help challenge assumptions about the limits of inclusive education, and offer examples of how change can be realistically achieved through processes of collaboration and participation. Written by a team of practitioner researchers drawn from a wide range of schools and services, this book addresses a wide range of real-life situations by exploring ways in which teachers (...) have tackled inequalities in the school environment through action research based on principles of equality and democracy. These include: * the co-ordination of services for minority ethnic groups, including refugee and asylum seeking children * young children with autism working with peers in the literacy hour * action research and the inclusion of gay students * developing the role of learning support assistants in inclusion * reducing exclusion of children with challenging behaviour * listening to the voices of young people with severe learning difficulties * developing links between special and mainstream schools * challenging marginalising practices in Further Education. (shrink)

Generational identity plays a large role in how teachers view educational change and school reform. Teachers of the Boomer generation, an era characterized by optimism and innovation, tend to be more resistant to change than those of Generation X, for whom standardization represents the norm, not a shift. This volume reviews five decades of research on educational change and teachers’ varying responses to it from a generational perspective, providing school leaders with insight on how best to relate to (...) these groups to achieve a common goal. Through ongoing professional development oriented by multigenerational grouping, teachers and school leaders can define success and create a multigenerational understanding of what good teaching and leadership look like. (shrink)

This chapter focuses on education and the courses it considers cultural entities. Using three different evolutionary analogies, it explains how education can emerge, evolve or change in response to external factors. The emphasis is on the emergence of Science, Technology and Society (STS) courses in tertiary and secondary education in Britain. The discussion begins by focusing on education as a cultural artefact and how educational change is influenced by culture. The chapter then examines the phases of development of the (...) STS curriculum in British education and the application of evolutionary thinking to the major trends in educational reform that have affected Britain and other countries during the last century, citing some of the later writings by Donald Campbell. It also highlights the importance of identifying both the organisms whose evolution was being tampered with, and the ‘habitat’ in which they had to exist, in order to understand the extreme and damaging educational changes of the 1990s in Britain. Finally, it considers trends in STS education in the post-Thatcher era. (shrink)

「現行教育制度的缺點是，教者與被教者間的階級太分明了，種種弊病都隨之而起。現行學校制本專為兒童而設，而教者之權為成人所操，成人與兒童既毫無平等關係之可能，則在學校中自然不能不成為兩種不同的階級。我們總 以為受教者的程度低，教者的程度高，斷沒有平等的可能，殊不知事實上並不是如此。」──常燕生 常燕生是何許人也？他是早已式微的「第三勢力」：中國青年黨在民初的早期領導人，以批判孫中山的《三民主義》著稱。然而在政治之外更不為人知的是，常燕生還是一位教育思想家，對於民初教育環境有著深入觀察。他當年 積極提倡的「社會教育」與「全民教育」，其闡述論述即使放到今天，仍有其遠見與卓識。本書另外還收錄了常燕生當年與陳獨秀透過《新青年》雜誌往來的信函，深入討論了民初教育文化與政治面向。.

Resumo: A civilização ecológica é uma forma de civilização e possui valores culturais. No processo de desenvolvimento econômico e social, devido às diferenças nas práticas sociais, diferentes países, regiões e grupos étnicos são forçados a diferir em sua compreensão da conotação da civilização ecológica e de sua expressão externa. No contexto da diversidade cultural, o desenvolvimento da educação da civilização ecológica na China é um projeto sistemático de longo prazo, que requer a participação conjunta do povo, e pode, de modo (...) geral, ser realizado em três níveis, incluindo o nível social, o nível nacional e o nível escolar. O presente artigo argumenta que toda a sociedade é o solo para desenvolver a educação da civilização ecológica; na China, o governo é a garantia externa e as escolas são o principal campo de batalha. Nesse sentido, o governo confia essencialmente nas escolas para alcançar o objetivo da educação da civilização ecológica. Portanto, o presente artigo se concentrará no nível escolar, baseado na diversidade cultural dos dias atuais, para discutir as contramedidas para o desenvolvimento da educação da civilização ecológica, na China, que inclui o sistema de metas, professores, estudantes, currículo, metodologia e meio ambiente. Além disso, o presente artigo toma a região de Sichuan-Tibet e a cidade de Tianjin como exemplos para elaborar as ações específicas de integração da cultura ecológica étnica com a educação da civilização ecológica nas escolas. (shrink)

This article argues for a new theoretical paradigm for the analysis of change in educational institutions that is able to deal with such issues as readiness for change, transformational change and the failure of change strategies. Punctuated equilibrium (Tushman and Romanelli, 1985) is a theory which has wide application. It envisages long-term change as being made up of a succession of long periods of relative stability interspersed by brief periods of rapid profound change. In the periods of stability only (...) relatively small incremental changes are possible. The periods of transformational change may be triggered by external or internal influences. A recent study of the long-term process of internationalisation in higher education institutions shows evidence to support the theory: long periods of incremental change, events precipitating profound change and the failure of externally imposed attempts to change. Also, as the theory predicts, changes in collegial organisations are slower and more uncertain than changes in managed organisations. (shrink)

This book presents and discusses an approach to action research to help reverse discriminatory and exclusionary practices in education. Insider accounts of action research will help challenge assumptions about the limits of inclusive education, and offer examples of how change can be realistically achieved through processes of collaboration and participation. Written by a team of practitioner researchers drawn from a wide range of schools and services, this book addresses a wide range of real-life situations by exploring ways in which teachers (...) have tackled inequalities in the school environment through action research based on principles of equality and democracy. These include: * the co-ordination of services for minority ethnic groups, including refugee and asylum seeking children * young children with autism working with peers in the literacy hour * action research and the inclusion of gay students * developing the role of learning support assistants in inclusion * reducing exclusion of children with challenging behaviour * listening to the voices of young people with severe learning difficulties * developing links between special and mainstream schools * challenging marginalising practices in Further Education. (shrink)

This chapter contains sections titled: Devices and Distribution in Actor Network Theory Little ‘Demos’:Technology and Organizational Identity Devices and Change: Tinkering, Cartesian Fixes, Brokerage Conclusions Note References.

This paper uses Actor Network Theory to examine two cases of device‐mediated educational change, one involving a computer‐assisted interactive video module that provided a half‐hour of instruction for a university course, the other an assistive communication device that proved a supposedly retarded pre‐school child to be intelligent. The paper explores how device construction instigated by middle‐level organizational workers can ramify into organizational change, and extends Actor Network theory by augmenting some of its conceptual tools. I argue that the organizational (...) change processes initiated by work on the devices played out in non‐linear ways across the decades‐long careers of their makers, and that to understand them we not only have to look across such extended time frames, but must also consider how agency and identity positions emerge and shift over time through the mediation of devices. (shrink)

This chapter contains sections titled: Introduction Complexity Theory Complexity Theory and Educational Change Conclusion: The ‘Conditions of Emergence’ References.

How might we usefully apply concepts and procedures derived from the study of other complex dynamical systems to analyzing systemic change in education? In this article we begin to define possible agendas for research toward developing systematic frameworks and shared terminology for such a project. We illustrate the plausibility of defining such frameworks and raise the question of the relation between such frameworks and the crucial task of aggregating data across ‘systemic experiments’, such as those conducted under the Urban Systemic (...) Initiative sponsored by the US National Science Foundation. Our discussion includes a review of key issues identified by groups of researchers regarding (1) Defining the System, (2) Structural Analysis, (3) Relationships Among Subsystems and Levels, (4) Drivers for Change, and (5) Modeling Methods. (shrink)

This article explores Gypsy Travellers' changing views on their children's education. It highlights the positive means some schools use to encourage greater involvement of Gypsy Traveller parents. It argues that current educational policy needs to be re-developed to incorporate more effective and affirmative responses to interrupted and nomadic learning. It draws heavily on interviews with Gypsy Traveller families in an effort to give 'voice' to an under-represented community.

This paper considers questions of continuity and change in education from the perspective of complexity theory, introducing the field to educationists who might not be familiar with it. Given a significant degree of complexity in a particular environment , new properties and behaviours, which are not necessarily contained in the essence of the constituent elements or able to be predicted from a knowledge of initial conditions, will emerge. These concepts of emergent phenomena from a critical mass, associated with notions of (...) lock‐in, path dependence, and inertial momentum, suggest that it is in the dynamic interactions and adaptive orientation of a system that new phenomena, new properties and behaviours, emerge. The focus thus shifts from a concern with decontextualised and universalised essence to contextualised and contingent complex wholes. This is where complexity theory seeks the levers of history. The paper posits the notion of inertial momentum as the conceptual link between the principle of emergent phenomena as developed principally in the natural sciences and the notion of socio‐historical change in human society. It is argued that educational and institutional change is less a consequence of effecting change in one particular factor or variable, and more a case of generating momentum in a new direction by attention to as many factors as possible. Complexity theory suggests, in other words, that what it might take to change a school's inertial momentum from an ethos of failure is massive and sustained intervention at every possible level until the phenomenon of learning excellence emerges from this new set of interactions among these new factors, and sustains itself autocatalytically. The paper concludes with a summary consideration of the conditions that contribute to the emergence of new properties and behaviours in a system. (shrink)

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 threw the world into an unexpected turmoil; schools were closed, exams cancelled, and educational systems were forced to react to deep and unexpected changes. In educational policy, however, the idea that we should prepare for an unknown, uncontrollable and risky future has been widely accepted long before the outbreak. Building on insights from complexity theory and the study of dynamic systems, the article critically examines how the standard educational response (...) to future unpredictability, which focuses on enhancing adaptability, fares in a time of crisis. It is argued that the emphasis on adaptability in response to a world that is increasingly becoming volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous is often uncritically embraced in educational policy. We suggest that furthering adaptability through education could be suited for tackling everyday uncertainty, yet is an ill-suited response to crisis situations because it hinders transformative change. The article also points to some additional difficulties with striving to further adaptability. Instead, it is argued that developing a vision might prove to be instrumental in guiding an adequate educational response. It is acknowledged that relying on a vision might raise some difficulties, but it is maintained that these can be, at least partially, avoided. (shrink)

This article argues for a new theoretical paradigm for the analysis of change in educational institutions that is able to deal with such issues as readiness for change, transformational change and the failure of change strategies. Punctuated equilibrium is a theory which has wide application. It envisages long-term change as being made up of a succession of long periods of relative stability interspersed by brief periods of rapid profound change. In the periods of stability only relatively small incremental changes (...) are possible. The periods of transformational change may be triggered by external or internal influences. A recent study of the long-term process of internationalisation in higher education institutions shows evidence to support the theory: long periods of incremental change, events precipitating profound change and the failure of externally imposed attempts to change. Also, as the theory predicts, changes in collegial organisations are slower and more uncertain than changes in managed organisations. (shrink)

A major theme of recent debate and policy development in the area of special education is that of inclusion: the placement of all pupils in mainstream schools and the development of curriculum and pedagogy to meet the needs of all. Analysis of national statistical data shows some movement in this direction, but of a slow and very uneven kind. An exploration of the concepts of pragmatism to describe an important aspect of LEA decision making and of ideology to describe an (...) important aspect of pressures for inclusion helps to explain this pattern of development. The paper concludes that both approaches require further systematic empirical data on the outcomes of different patterns of educational provision. (shrink)