Mandatory top-down Reform - Conditions for Effective Implementation

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 1:45 pm - Gold 1
  In Roundtable Session: Implementing Reform, Unraveling Futures: The Micropolitics and Meaning of Educational Change

Abstract

According to Fullan (2000), four conditions enable effective reform implementation: motivation, capacity, assessment, and accountability. Yet this framework has rarely been tested in the context of a mandatory, large-scale reform applied simultaneously across all public schools, nor differentiated between administrative and pedagogical goals within the same policy. We explores these dynamics through a multi-case study of 18 Israeli public schools. Data were triangulated through semi-structured interviews, observations, and document analysis. Findings show that administrative goals were implemented where Fullan’s conditions were met, while pedagogical goals were not. The study offers a theoretical contribution by specifying how Fullan’s model may be adapted to account for disparities between administrative and pedagogical implementation within centralized reforms and highlights the constraints limiting pedagogical change.

Authors

• Nirit Pariente, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

• Dorit Tubin, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev