Leading Educational Change

LEADING EDUCATIONAL CHANGE

Assignment 1

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the factors that have shaped

my attitude and involvement in leading educational change, and to

investigate how my personal ability to manage change has shaped my leadership of educational change. This discussion will be blended with examples of change in my personal life, my own leadership experience and references to the literature in the field of leading educational change.

"Status quo" has always been a term with negative connotations for me. There has always been a feeling that without change, you stagnate and die, both personally and professionally. I'm not sure whether this perspective is a personality trait, a learning style or simply a philosophical attitude, but the need to investigate change, embrace change and reflect on change, has been an inner yearning throughout my life. Wheatley( 2001:1) asks the question "How can we evoke the innate human need to innovate?" I am genuinely surprised at how many teachers I've worked with who are avoiders of change and are quite professionally conservative in nature. Perhaps not as surprising is the encountered conservatism amongst principals; although possibly one influences the other. I am curious as to why education as a profession seems to lack inertia. Blenkin, Edwards & Kelly (1997) refer to work by Lortie (1975) who describes the culture of teaching as individualistic, present-oriented and conservative. Hargreaves (1989, in Blenkin et al 1997:219) claims "teachers avoid long term planning and collaboration with their colleagues and resist involvement in whole school policy-making in favour of gaining marginal improvements