Against the Tide: From the Margins to the Mainstream

Session Submission Type: Symposium

Abstract

Centrally located policymakers often assume change must begin at the highest levels and with great force in order to achieve both large-scale and substantive classroom-level impact. Research in four different countries indicates that change can, in fact, begin with actors and students otherwise in the margins. Change can be initiated by local authorities, schools, or even organizations outside the formal educational system. Thefour projects were diverse: a professional association that permitted significant local adaptation, a locally sponsored collaborative network, a capacity-building project led by a local university, and a union-driven effort. Collectively, however, they demonstrate that with, sufficient flexibility, support, and impetus for change, local actors can initiate change that begins marginally and locally, but impacts entire systems.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Educational Change

Chair

• Andrew Hargreaves, Boston College

Papers

• The Paradox of Complexity and Cohesion: Marginal and subterranean changes and their implications for systemic reform - Andrew Hargreaves, Boston College; Henry I. Braun, Boston College

• From One School to Many? Reflections on the Impact and Nature of School Federations in England - Christopher James Chapman, University of Glasgow

• Flexibility, Capacity, and Adaptability: Local Reconciliation of Competing Policy Demands - Matthew James Welch, Boston College

• Changing School From Inside Out: A Qualitative Case Study of a Self-Initiated Change Over Time in South Korea - Ba-Ul Paul Chung, Korean Educational Development Institute

Discussant

• Karen Seashore Louis, University of Minnesota