Waves of Educational Change: A Review of the Journal of Educational Change's Historical Core

• In Event: 53.066 - The Past, Present, and Future of Educational Change

Abstract

This paper is a review of the most cited publications of the Journal of Educational Change (JEC). While the journal was established in 2000 with hopes to become “a prime place to discuss the leading edge of thinking and research on educational change” (Hargreaves, 2000, pp. 2-3), opinions about its contributions are divided (Sahlberg, 2015; Smith, 2016). Therefore, this review presents an analysis of the JEC’s historical core, offering insight into the past of the journal and its interplay with the field of educational change at large.

Data Sources, Methods, and Modes of Inquiry

As this review seeks to provide a historical overview of the JEC, a purposive sample of articles were selected based on citation counts, which served as a proxy for article impact. Additional articles were included from years with lower citation counts to ensure a historical representation. The final sample consisted of 52 articles, which accounted for 61% of the JEC’s historical citations as of January 2016. (See Table 1)

The review team had a critical approach, situating the reviewed articles within their historical and geographic contexts. Team-members analyzed each article independently according to 23 categories (e.g., general topic, genre, findings) and then compared their analyses for inter-rater reliability as in consensual qualitative research (Hill, Thompson, & Williams, 1997). After a series of meetings during which all articles were discussed, the team began to assemble the overall findings for the review.

Findings: A Five-Period Historical Evolution

The overall findings of the review indicate that there was a historical evolution in the JEC from 2000 to 2014 that can be broadly categorized into five historical periods related to ‘waves of educational change’ (See Figure 1). Whether prompted by an occurrence in the journal itself or responding to an event in education at large, most of the articles published during a given time were cohesive around a set of topics. These topics are presented and discussed in terms of the ways in which they reflect (or not) trends in the larger field of educational change. For instance, at the center of the JEC’s historical development there has been a process of de-centering of Anglo-American perspectives on educational reform, pushed both by an increasing pessimism among U.S. and U.K. scholars regarding their countries’ reforms and by systematic evidence that other educational systems are achieving better student learning outcomes. The historical evolution also shows a shift from more conceptual works by the field’s historical leaders toward more empirical research conducted by emergent scholars.

Scholarly Significance

In addition to setting a historical context for this symposium, this review highlights key trends in the ways the field has experienced educational change. Many of these changes have aimed to address this year’s conference theme, Achieving the promise of equal educational opportunity, though some with more success than others. Therefore, this review discusses the theories of educational change that have dominated the field and suggests future directions to address the gaps left by these theories.

Authors

• Juan Cristobal Garcia-Huidobro, Boston College

• Allison Nannemann, Boston College

• Chris K. Bacon, Boston College

• Katherine Thompson, Boston College