We've said it's a learning organisation but does it know (and what is it anyway)?
pp. 277-283
in: Frank A. Stowell, Ray Ison, Rosalind Armson, Jacky Holloway, Sue Jackson (eds), Systems for sustainability, Berlin, Springer, 1997Abstract
Most teachers can list the ingredients for effective change and the attributes of a change agent (see for example Miles, Saxl & Lieberman, 1988) and can quote a battery of techniques for reaching agreement about what needs changing. But why is it the results of change programs are so haphazard? Can systems be changed (do systems exist as entities?) or only people? And are they changed or do they change? Recent writing on educational change suggests that the change process is a messy business (Fullan, 1993a; Fullan, 1993b; Fullan 1994). Michael Fullan (1993a:20) talks about the "New Paradigm of Change" and describes change as a "Journey not a Blueprint". The first part of this paper explores some of the territory behind the tools currently used in effecting change, and suggests reasons for why success is somewhat haphazard. The second part of the paper offers an example of an attempt to effect change in a large school system "to promote schools as learning communities." (NSW DSE, 1995).