School Management

Meaning of Educational Change

Meaning of education change:

Introduction:Since the early 1980s, when a flood of educational reforms swept over the United States after publication of A Nation at Risk in 1983, and similar reforms were undertaken in Canada and other industrial countries, a distinct subfield devoted to educational change has emerged within educational studies. This field now has its own research agenda and vocabulary, a scholarly journal, and even a definitive research handbook.1 Contributors to this field of educational change have for the most part been recruited from university-based faculties of education, though other participants have included officials of national, state, or provincial governments and local educational agencies, as well as researchers and consultants at policy think tanks and research and development firms. Such individuals and organizations focus on training educational professionals for, or governing and regulating practices of, or providing research and development or consulting services to, the mainstream educational system.

Second, a deeper conceptual understanding of educational change was being advanced by theorists who, using insights from sociology and organizational theory, explained how organizations tend to absorb change in such a manner as to retain fundamental stability. Larry Cuban, to take a prominent example, argued in an influential handbook chapter that in a judo-like fashion, organizations respond to external forces by converting changes meant to be fundamental into minor, or incremental, changes compatible with existing organizational structures.2

By the end of the 1990s leaders in the emerging field of educational change were calling for new approaches to the practice of change, grounded in new, but yet to be formulated, conceptions of change and the change process. Andy Hargreaves, for example, noted that although ‘‘educational change is something we now understand much better than a decade ago too many change efforts remain disappointing and ineffective.’’3

Definition of Education:

The definition of education in common usage, that education is merely the delivery of knowledge, skills and information from teachers to students, is inadequate to capture what is really important about being and becoming educated. The definition of education in common usage, that education is merely the delivery of knowledge, skills and information from teachers to students, is inadequate to capture what is really important about being and becoming educated.

Literacy Rate:

Education Reforms Challenges:

Weakened Governance

Fragmentation

Lack of Clarity in Inter-Tier Relationships

Poor Quality of Teachers & Managers

Quality of curriculum, textbooks & exams

Low level of literacy

Out of school children

Dropouts

Public Private Partnership

In-adequate financing

Gender Equity

Poor monitoring & evaluation

Imbalance in primary, middle & secondary schools

Inconvenient school location

Salient features of national education plan:

Universal and Free Primary and Secondary Education

Promotion of Equity

Minimum National Standards

Relevance to Labor Market

Sector Planning

Financial allocation of 7% of GDP by 2018

Encourage Private sector

Link Allocations to Definition of Free Education

Improve Planning, Management and Implementation Capacity

Donor Harmonization

Overcoming Fragmented Governance

Bridging the Public Private Divide

Improved Examination System

Introduction of Early Childhood Education (3-5 years) & inclusive education.

Achieve the MDG goals.

All Primary schools shall be upgraded to Middle level

Well developed plan for expanding school facilities.

High priority to reducing drop out rates

Improved school environment

Career Counselling at higher secondary level

Develop national literacy curriculum

Enhance qualifications for employment as teachers

Future Plans for Education in Pakistan:

Tripartite Partnership (The role of family, the community and the State. All need to be mobilized)

Free Education Up to Matriculation.

Provision of Free Textbooks.

Grant of Scholarships and Incentives to Girl Students.

Availability and Accessibility of Schools Particularly in Rural Areas.

Teacher’s Status and Recruitment of Female Teachers.

Better status and pay for teachers.

Experience has demonstrated that schools with female teachers function well particularly at Primary level.

Improvement in Learning Environment (Better infrastructure through School Management Councils)

Technical / Vocational Education (It is important to provide demand related skills).

Instructional Methods (Emphasis must be given on development of analytical faculties of the students).

Teachers’ Training and Knowledge (To improve teachers’ knowledge of the subject and equip them with a wide repertoire of teaching skills).

English Language (Introduction of English from Class – I. Future policy reforms will emphasize the teaching of science subjects in English at public secondary schools).

References:

1. The journal referred to here is Journal of Educational Change, edited by Michael Fullan and published by Kluwer Academic Publishers. The handbook is International Handbook of Educational Change, edited by Andy Hargreaves, Ann Lieberman, Michael Fullan, and David Hopkins (Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1998).

2. Larry Cuban, ‘‘Curriculum Stability and Change,’’ in Handbook of Research on Curriculum, ed. Philip W. Jackson (New York: Macmillan, 1992), chap. 8.

3. Andy Hargreaves, ‘‘Pushing the Boundaries of Educational Change,’’ in International Handbook of Educational Change, ed. Hargreaves et al., 282