scholarly articles about education reform

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• Published: 12 February 2024

Education reform and change driven by digital technology: a bibliometric study from a global perspective

• Chengliang Wang 1 ,
• Xiaojiao Chen 1 ,
• Teng Yu   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-5198-7261 2 , 3 ,
• Yidan Liu 1 , 4 &
• Yuhui Jing 1  

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications volume  11 , Article number:  256 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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• Development studies
• Science, technology and society

Amidst the global digital transformation of educational institutions, digital technology has emerged as a significant area of interest among scholars. Such technologies have played an instrumental role in enhancing learner performance and improving the effectiveness of teaching and learning. These digital technologies also ensure the sustainability and stability of education during the epidemic. Despite this, a dearth of systematic reviews exists regarding the current state of digital technology application in education. To address this gap, this study utilized the Web of Science Core Collection as a data source (specifically selecting the high-quality SSCI and SCIE) and implemented a topic search by setting keywords, yielding 1849 initial publications. Furthermore, following the PRISMA guidelines, we refined the selection to 588 high-quality articles. Using software tools such as CiteSpace, VOSviewer, and Charticulator, we reviewed these 588 publications to identify core authors (such as Selwyn, Henderson, Edwards), highly productive countries/regions (England, Australia, USA), key institutions (Monash University, Australian Catholic University), and crucial journals in the field ( Education and Information Technologies , Computers & Education , British Journal of Educational Technology ). Evolutionary analysis reveals four developmental periods in the research field of digital technology education application: the embryonic period, the preliminary development period, the key exploration, and the acceleration period of change. The study highlights the dual influence of technological factors and historical context on the research topic. Technology is a key factor in enabling education to transform and upgrade, and the context of the times is an important driving force in promoting the adoption of new technologies in the education system and the transformation and upgrading of education. Additionally, the study identifies three frontier hotspots in the field: physical education, digital transformation, and professional development under the promotion of digital technology. This study presents a clear framework for digital technology application in education, which can serve as a valuable reference for researchers and educational practitioners concerned with digital technology education application in theory and practice.

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Introduction

Digital technology has become an essential component of modern education, facilitating the extension of temporal and spatial boundaries and enriching the pedagogical contexts (Selwyn and Facer, 2014 ). The advent of mobile communication technology has enabled learning through social media platforms (Szeto et al. 2015 ; Pires et al. 2022 ), while the advancement of augmented reality technology has disrupted traditional conceptions of learning environments and spaces (Perez-Sanagustin et al., 2014 ; Kyza and Georgiou, 2018 ). A wide range of digital technologies has enabled learning to become a norm in various settings, including the workplace (Sjöberg and Holmgren, 2021 ), home (Nazare et al. 2022 ), and online communities (Tang and Lam, 2014 ). Education is no longer limited to fixed locations and schedules, but has permeated all aspects of life, allowing learning to continue at any time and any place (Camilleri and Camilleri, 2016 ; Selwyn and Facer, 2014 ).

The advent of digital technology has led to the creation of several informal learning environments (Greenhow and Lewin, 2015 ) that exhibit divergent form, function, features, and patterns in comparison to conventional learning environments (Nygren et al. 2019 ). Consequently, the associated teaching and learning processes, as well as the strategies for the creation, dissemination, and acquisition of learning resources, have undergone a complete overhaul. The ensuing transformations have posed a myriad of novel issues, such as the optimal structuring of teaching methods by instructors and the adoption of appropriate learning strategies by students in the new digital technology environment. Consequently, an examination of the principles that underpin effective teaching and learning in this environment is a topic of significant interest to numerous scholars engaged in digital technology education research.

Over the course of the last two decades, digital technology has made significant strides in the field of education, notably in extending education time and space and creating novel educational contexts with sustainability. Despite research attempts to consolidate the application of digital technology in education, previous studies have only focused on specific aspects of digital technology, such as Pinto and Leite’s ( 2020 ) investigation into digital technology in higher education and Mustapha et al.’s ( 2021 ) examination of the role and value of digital technology in education during the pandemic. While these studies have provided valuable insights into the practical applications of digital technology in particular educational domains, they have not comprehensively explored the macro-mechanisms and internal logic of digital technology implementation in education. Additionally, these studies were conducted over a relatively brief period, making it challenging to gain a comprehensive understanding of the macro-dynamics and evolutionary process of digital technology in education. Some studies have provided an overview of digital education from an educational perspective but lack a precise understanding of technological advancement and change (Yang et al. 2022 ). Therefore, this study seeks to employ a systematic scientific approach to collate relevant research from 2000 to 2022, comprehend the internal logic and development trends of digital technology in education, and grasp the outstanding contribution of digital technology in promoting the sustainability of education in time and space. In summary, this study aims to address the following questions:

RQ1: Since the turn of the century, what is the productivity distribution of the field of digital technology education application research in terms of authorship, country/region, institutional and journal level?

RQ2: What is the development trend of research on the application of digital technology in education in the past two decades?

RQ3: What are the current frontiers of research on the application of digital technology in education?

Literature review

Although the term “digital technology” has become ubiquitous, a unified definition has yet to be agreed upon by scholars. Because the meaning of the word digital technology is closely related to the specific context. Within the educational research domain, Selwyn’s ( 2016 ) definition is widely favored by scholars (Pinto and Leite, 2020 ). Selwyn ( 2016 ) provides a comprehensive view of various concrete digital technologies and their applications in education through ten specific cases, such as immediate feedback in classes, orchestrating teaching, and community learning. Through these specific application scenarios, Selwyn ( 2016 ) argues that digital technology encompasses technologies associated with digital devices, including but not limited to tablets, smartphones, computers, and social media platforms (such as Facebook and YouTube). Furthermore, Further, the behavior of accessing the internet at any location through portable devices can be taken as an extension of the behavior of applying digital technology.

The evolving nature of digital technology has significant implications in the field of education. In the 1890s, the focus of digital technology in education was on comprehending the nuances of digital space, digital culture, and educational methodologies, with its connotations aligned more towards the idea of e-learning. The advent and subsequent widespread usage of mobile devices since the dawn of the new millennium have been instrumental in the rapid expansion of the concept of digital technology. Notably, mobile learning devices such as smartphones and tablets, along with social media platforms, have become integral components of digital technology (Conole and Alevizou, 2010 ; Batista et al. 2016 ). In recent times, the burgeoning application of AI technology in the education sector has played a vital role in enriching the digital technology lexicon (Banerjee et al. 2021 ). ChatGPT, for instance, is identified as a novel educational technology that has immense potential to revolutionize future education (Rospigliosi, 2023 ; Arif, Munaf and Ul-Haque, 2023 ).

Pinto and Leite ( 2020 ) conducted a comprehensive macroscopic survey of the use of digital technologies in the education sector and identified three distinct categories, namely technologies for assessment and feedback, mobile technologies, and Information Communication Technologies (ICT). This classification criterion is both macroscopic and highly condensed. In light of the established concept definitions of digital technology in the educational research literature, this study has adopted the characterizations of digital technology proposed by Selwyn ( 2016 ) and Pinto and Leite ( 2020 ) as crucial criteria for analysis and research inclusion. Specifically, this criterion encompasses several distinct types of digital technologies, including Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), Mobile tools, eXtended Reality (XR) Technologies, Assessment and Feedback systems, Learning Management Systems (LMS), Publish and Share tools, Collaborative systems, Social media, Interpersonal Communication tools, and Content Aggregation tools.

Methodology and materials

Research method: bibliometric.

The research on econometric properties has been present in various aspects of human production and life, yet systematic scientific theoretical guidance has been lacking, resulting in disorganization. In 1969, British scholar Pritchard ( 1969 ) proposed “bibliometrics,” which subsequently emerged as an independent discipline in scientific quantification research. Initially, Pritchard defined bibliometrics as “the application of mathematical and statistical methods to books and other media of communication,” however, the definition was not entirely rigorous. To remedy this, Hawkins ( 2001 ) expanded Pritchard’s definition to “the quantitative analysis of the bibliographic features of a body of literature.” De Bellis further clarified the objectives of bibliometrics, stating that it aims to analyze and identify patterns in literature, such as the most productive authors, institutions, countries, and journals in scientific disciplines, trends in literary production over time, and collaboration networks (De Bellis, 2009 ). According to Garfield ( 2006 ), bibliometric research enables the examination of the history and structure of a field, the flow of information within the field, the impact of journals, and the citation status of publications over a longer time scale. All of these definitions illustrate the unique role of bibliometrics as a research method for evaluating specific research fields.

This study uses CiteSpace, VOSviewer, and Charticulator to analyze data and create visualizations. Each of these three tools has its own strengths and can complement each other. CiteSpace and VOSviewer use set theory and probability theory to provide various visualization views in fields such as keywords, co-occurrence, and co-authors. They are easy to use and produce visually appealing graphics (Chen, 2006 ; van Eck and Waltman, 2009 ) and are currently the two most widely used bibliometric tools in the field of visualization (Pan et al. 2018 ). In this study, VOSviewer provided the data necessary for the Performance Analysis; Charticulator was then used to redraw using the tabular data exported from VOSviewer (for creating the chord diagram of country collaboration); this was to complement the mapping process, while CiteSpace was primarily utilized to generate keyword maps and conduct burst word analysis.

Data retrieval

This study selected documents from the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) and Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) in the Web of Science Core Collection as the data source, for the following reasons:

(1) The Web of Science Core Collection, as a high-quality digital literature resource database, has been widely accepted by many researchers and is currently considered the most suitable database for bibliometric analysis (Jing et al. 2023a ). Compared to other databases, Web of Science provides more comprehensive data information (Chen et al. 2022a ), and also provides data formats suitable for analysis using VOSviewer and CiteSpace (Gaviria-Marin et al. 2019 ).

(2) The application of digital technology in the field of education is an interdisciplinary research topic, involving technical knowledge literature belonging to the natural sciences and education-related literature belonging to the social sciences. Therefore, it is necessary to select Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) and Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) as the sources of research data, ensuring the comprehensiveness of data while ensuring the reliability and persuasiveness of bibliometric research (Hwang and Tsai, 2011 ; Wang et al. 2022 ).

After establishing the source of research data, it is necessary to determine a retrieval strategy (Jing et al. 2023b ). The choice of a retrieval strategy should consider a balance between the breadth and precision of the search formula. That is to say, it should encompass all the literature pertaining to the research topic while excluding irrelevant documents as much as possible. In light of this, this study has set a retrieval strategy informed by multiple related papers (Mustapha et al. 2021 ; Luo et al. 2021 ). The research by Mustapha et al. ( 2021 ) guided us in selecting keywords (“digital” AND “technolog*”) to target digital technology, while Luo et al. ( 2021 ) informed the selection of terms (such as “instruct*,” “teach*,” and “education”) to establish links with the field of education. Then, based on the current application of digital technology in the educational domain and the scope of selection criteria, we constructed the final retrieval strategy. Following the general patterns of past research (Jing et al. 2023a , 2023b ), we conducted a specific screening using the topic search (Topics, TS) function in Web of Science. For the specific criteria used in the screening for this study, please refer to Table 1 .

Literature screening

Literature acquired through keyword searches may contain ostensibly related yet actually unrelated works. Therefore, to ensure the close relevance of literature included in the analysis to the research topic, it is often necessary to perform a manual screening process to identify the final literature to be analyzed, subsequent to completing the initial literature search.

The manual screening process consists of two steps. Initially, irrelevant literature is weeded out based on the title and abstract, with two members of the research team involved in this phase. This stage lasted about one week, resulting in 1106 articles being retained. Subsequently, a comprehensive review of the full text is conducted to accurately identify the literature required for the study. To carry out the second phase of manual screening effectively and scientifically, and to minimize the potential for researcher bias, the research team established the inclusion criteria presented in Table 2 . Three members were engaged in this phase, which took approximately 2 weeks, culminating in the retention of 588 articles after meticulous screening. The entire screening process is depicted in Fig. 1 , adhering to the PRISMA guidelines (Page et al. 2021 ).

The process of obtaining and filtering the necessary literature data for research.

Data standardization

Nguyen and Hallinger ( 2020 ) pointed out that raw data extracted from scientific databases often contains multiple expressions of the same term, and not addressing these synonymous expressions could affect research results in bibliometric analysis. For instance, in the original data, the author list may include “Tsai, C. C.” and “Tsai, C.-C.”, while the keyword list may include “professional-development” and “professional development,” which often require merging. Therefore, before analyzing the selected literature, a data disambiguation process is necessary to standardize the data (Strotmann and Zhao, 2012 ; Van Eck and Waltman, 2019 ). This study adopted the data standardization process proposed by Taskin and Al ( 2019 ), mainly including the following standardization operations:

Firstly, the author and source fields in the data are corrected and standardized to differentiate authors with similar names.

Secondly, the study checks whether the journals to which the literature belongs have been renamed in the past over 20 years, so as to avoid the influence of periodical name change on the analysis results.

Finally, the keyword field is standardized by unifying parts of speech and singular/plural forms of keywords, which can help eliminate redundant entries in the knowledge graph.

Performance analysis (RQ1)

This section offers a thorough and detailed analysis of the state of research in the field of digital technology education. By utilizing descriptive statistics and visual maps, it provides a comprehensive overview of the development trends, authors, countries, institutions, and journal distribution within the field. The insights presented in this section are of great significance in advancing our understanding of the current state of research in this field and identifying areas for further investigation. The use of visual aids to display inter-country cooperation and the evolution of the field adds to the clarity and coherence of the analysis.

Time trend of the publications

To understand a research field, it is first necessary to understand the most basic quantitative information, among which the change in the number of publications per year best reflects the development trend of a research field. Figure 2 shows the distribution of publication dates.

Time trend of the publications on application of digital technology in education.

From the Fig. 2 , it can be seen that the development of this field over the past over 20 years can be roughly divided into three stages. The first stage was from 2000 to 2007, during which the number of publications was relatively low. Due to various factors such as technological maturity, the academic community did not pay widespread attention to the role of digital technology in expanding the scope of teaching and learning. The second stage was from 2008 to 2019, during which the overall number of publications showed an upward trend, and the development of the field entered an accelerated period, attracting more and more scholars’ attention. The third stage was from 2020 to 2022, during which the number of publications stabilized at around 100. During this period, the impact of the pandemic led to a large number of scholars focusing on the role of digital technology in education during the pandemic, and research on the application of digital technology in education became a core topic in social science research.

Analysis of authors

An analysis of the author’s publication volume provides information about the representative scholars and core research strengths of a research area. Table 3 presents information on the core authors in adaptive learning research, including name, publication number, and average number of citations per article (based on the analysis and statistics from VOSviewer).

Variations in research foci among scholars abound. Within the field of digital technology education application research over the past two decades, Neil Selwyn stands as the most productive author, having published 15 papers garnering a total of 1027 citations, resulting in an average of 68.47 citations per paper. As a Professor at the Faculty of Education at Monash University, Selwyn concentrates on exploring the application of digital technology in higher education contexts (Selwyn et al. 2021 ), as well as related products in higher education such as Coursera, edX, and Udacity MOOC platforms (Bulfin et al. 2014 ). Selwyn’s contributions to the educational sociology perspective include extensive research on the impact of digital technology on education, highlighting the spatiotemporal extension of educational processes and practices through technological means as the greatest value of educational technology (Selwyn, 2012 ; Selwyn and Facer, 2014 ). In addition, he provides a blueprint for the development of future schools in 2030 based on the present impact of digital technology on education (Selwyn et al. 2019 ). The second most productive author in this field, Henderson, also offers significant contributions to the understanding of the important value of digital technology in education, specifically in the higher education setting, with a focus on the impact of the pandemic (Henderson et al. 2015 ; Cohen et al. 2022 ). In contrast, Edwards’ research interests focus on early childhood education, particularly the application of digital technology in this context (Edwards, 2013 ; Bird and Edwards, 2015 ). Additionally, on the technical level, Edwards also mainly prefers digital game technology, because it is a digital technology that children are relatively easy to accept (Edwards, 2015 ).

Analysis of countries/regions and organization

The present study aimed to ascertain the leading countries in digital technology education application research by analyzing 75 countries related to 558 works of literature. Table 4 depicts the top ten countries that have contributed significantly to this field in terms of publication count (based on the analysis and statistics from VOSviewer). Our analysis of Table 4 data shows that England emerged as the most influential country/region, with 92 published papers and 2401 citations. Australia and the United States secured the second and third ranks, respectively, with 90 papers (2187 citations) and 70 papers (1331 citations) published. Geographically, most of the countries featured in the top ten publication volumes are situated in Australia, North America, and Europe, with China being the only exception. Notably, all these countries, except China, belong to the group of developed nations, suggesting that economic strength is a prerequisite for fostering research in the digital technology education application field.

This study presents a visual representation of the publication output and cooperation relationships among different countries in the field of digital technology education application research. Specifically, a chord diagram is employed to display the top 30 countries in terms of publication output, as depicted in Fig. 3 . The chord diagram is composed of nodes and chords, where the nodes are positioned as scattered points along the circumference, and the length of each node corresponds to the publication output, with longer lengths indicating higher publication output. The chords, on the other hand, represent the cooperation relationships between any two countries, and are weighted based on the degree of closeness of the cooperation, with wider chords indicating closer cooperation. Through the analysis of the cooperation relationships, the findings suggest that the main publishing countries in this field are engaged in cooperative relationships with each other, indicating a relatively high level of international academic exchange and research internationalization.

In the diagram, nodes are scattered along the circumference of a circle, with the length of each node representing the volume of publications. The weighted arcs connecting any two points on the circle are known as chords, representing the collaborative relationship between the two, with the width of the arc indicating the closeness of the collaboration.

Further analyzing Fig. 3 , we can extract more valuable information, enabling a deeper understanding of the connections between countries in the research field of digital technology in educational applications. It is evident that certain countries, such as the United States, China, and England, display thicker connections, indicating robust collaborative relationships in terms of productivity. These thicker lines signify substantial mutual contributions and shared objectives in certain sectors or fields, highlighting the interconnectedness and global integration in these areas. By delving deeper, we can also explore potential future collaboration opportunities through the chord diagram, identifying possible partners to propel research and development in this field. In essence, the chord diagram successfully encapsulates and conveys the multi-dimensionality of global productivity and cooperation, allowing for a comprehensive understanding of the intricate inter-country relationships and networks in a global context, providing valuable guidance and insights for future research and collaborations.

An in-depth examination of the publishing institutions is provided in Table 5 , showcasing the foremost 10 institutions ranked by their publication volume. Notably, Monash University and Australian Catholic University, situated in Australia, have recorded the most prolific publications within the digital technology education application realm, with 22 and 10 publications respectively. Moreover, the University of Oslo from Norway is featured among the top 10 publishing institutions, with an impressive average citation count of 64 per publication. It is worth highlighting that six institutions based in the United Kingdom were also ranked within the top 10 publishing institutions, signifying their leading position in this area of research.

Analysis of journals

Journals are the main carriers for publishing high-quality papers. Some scholars point out that the two key factors to measure the influence of journals in the specified field are the number of articles published and the number of citations. The more papers published in a magazine and the more citations, the greater its influence (Dzikowski, 2018 ). Therefore, this study utilized VOSviewer to statistically analyze the top 10 journals with the most publications in the field of digital technology in education and calculated the average citations per article (see Table 6 ).

Based on Table 6 , it is apparent that the highest number of articles in the domain of digital technology in education research were published in Education and Information Technologies (47 articles), Computers & Education (34 articles), and British Journal of Educational Technology (32 articles), indicating a higher article output compared to other journals. This underscores the fact that these three journals concentrate more on the application of digital technology in education. Furthermore, several other journals, such as Technology Pedagogy and Education and Sustainability, have published more than 15 articles in this domain. Sustainability represents the open access movement, which has notably facilitated research progress in this field, indicating that the development of open access journals in recent years has had a significant impact. Although there is still considerable disagreement among scholars on the optimal approach to achieve open access, the notion that research outcomes should be accessible to all is widely recognized (Huang et al. 2020 ). On further analysis of the research fields to which these journals belong, except for Sustainability, it is evident that they all pertain to educational technology, thus providing a qualitative definition of the research area of digital technology education from the perspective of journals.

Temporal keyword analysis: thematic evolution (RQ2)

The evolution of research themes is a dynamic process, and previous studies have attempted to present the developmental trajectory of fields by drawing keyword networks in phases (Kumar et al. 2021 ; Chen et al. 2022b ). To understand the shifts in research topics across different periods, this study follows past research and, based on the significant changes in the research field and corresponding technological advancements during the outlined periods, divides the timeline into four stages (the first stage from January 2000 to December 2005, the second stage from January 2006 to December 2011, the third stage from January 2012 to December 2017; and the fourth stage from January 2018 to December 2022). The division into these four stages was determined through a combination of bibliometric analysis and literature review, which presented a clear trajectory of the field’s development. The research analyzes the keyword networks for each time period (as there are only three articles in the first stage, it was not possible to generate an appropriate keyword co-occurrence map, hence only the keyword co-occurrence maps from the second to the fourth stages are provided), to understand the evolutionary track of the digital technology education application research field over time.

2000.1–2005.12: germination period

From January 2000 to December 2005, digital technology education application research was in its infancy. Only three studies focused on digital technology, all of which were related to computers. Due to the popularity of computers, the home became a new learning environment, highlighting the important role of digital technology in expanding the scope of learning spaces (Sutherland et al. 2000 ). In specific disciplines and contexts, digital technology was first favored in medical clinical practice, becoming an important tool for supporting the learning of clinical knowledge and practice (Tegtmeyer et al. 2001 ; Durfee et al. 2003 ).

2006.1–2011.12: initial development period

Between January 2006 and December 2011, it was the initial development period of digital technology education research. Significant growth was observed in research related to digital technology, and discussions and theoretical analyses about “digital natives” emerged. During this phase, scholars focused on the debate about “how to use digital technology reasonably” and “whether current educational models and school curriculum design need to be adjusted on a large scale” (Bennett and Maton, 2010 ; Selwyn, 2009 ; Margaryan et al. 2011 ). These theoretical and speculative arguments provided a unique perspective on the impact of cognitive digital technology on education and teaching. As can be seen from the vocabulary such as “rethinking”, “disruptive pedagogy”, and “attitude” in Fig. 4 , many scholars joined the calm reflection and analysis under the trend of digital technology (Laurillard, 2008 ; Vratulis et al. 2011 ). During this phase, technology was still undergoing dramatic changes. The development of mobile technology had already caught the attention of many scholars (Wong et al. 2011 ), but digital technology represented by computers was still very active (Selwyn et al. 2011 ). The change in technological form would inevitably lead to educational transformation. Collins and Halverson ( 2010 ) summarized the prospects and challenges of using digital technology for learning and educational practices, believing that digital technology would bring a disruptive revolution to the education field and bring about a new educational system. In addition, the term “teacher education” in Fig. 4 reflects the impact of digital technology development on teachers. The rapid development of technology has widened the generation gap between teachers and students. To ensure smooth communication between teachers and students, teachers must keep up with the trend of technological development and establish a lifelong learning concept (Donnison, 2009 ).

In the diagram, each node represents a keyword, with the size of the node indicating the frequency of occurrence of the keyword. The connections represent the co-occurrence relationships between keywords, with a higher frequency of co-occurrence resulting in tighter connections.

2012.1–2017.12: critical exploration period

During the period spanning January 2012 to December 2017, the application of digital technology in education research underwent a significant exploration phase. As can be seen from Fig. 5 , different from the previous stage, the specific elements of specific digital technology have started to increase significantly, including the enrichment of technological contexts, the greater variety of research methods, and the diversification of learning modes. Moreover, the temporal and spatial dimensions of the learning environment were further de-emphasized, as noted in previous literature (Za et al. 2014 ). Given the rapidly accelerating pace of technological development, the education system in the digital era is in urgent need of collaborative evolution and reconstruction, as argued by Davis, Eickelmann, and Zaka ( 2013 ).

In the domain of digital technology, social media has garnered substantial scholarly attention as a promising avenue for learning, as noted by Pasquini and Evangelopoulos ( 2016 ). The implementation of social media in education presents several benefits, including the liberation of education from the restrictions of physical distance and time, as well as the erasure of conventional educational boundaries. The user-generated content (UGC) model in social media has emerged as a crucial source for knowledge creation and distribution, with the widespread adoption of mobile devices. Moreover, social networks have become an integral component of ubiquitous learning environments (Hwang et al. 2013 ). The utilization of social media allows individuals to function as both knowledge producers and recipients, which leads to a blurring of the conventional roles of learners and teachers. On mobile platforms, the roles of learners and teachers are not fixed, but instead interchangeable.

In terms of research methodology, the prevalence of empirical studies with survey designs in the field of educational technology during this period is evident from the vocabulary used, such as “achievement,” “acceptance,” “attitude,” and “ict.” in Fig. 5 . These studies aim to understand learners’ willingness to adopt and attitudes towards new technologies, and some seek to investigate the impact of digital technologies on learning outcomes through quasi-experimental designs (Domínguez et al. 2013 ). Among these empirical studies, mobile learning emerged as a hot topic, and this is not surprising. First, the advantages of mobile learning environments over traditional ones have been empirically demonstrated (Hwang et al. 2013 ). Second, learners born around the turn of the century have been heavily influenced by digital technologies and have developed their own learning styles that are more open to mobile devices as a means of learning. Consequently, analyzing mobile learning as a relatively novel mode of learning has become an important issue for scholars in the field of educational technology.

The intervention of technology has led to the emergence of several novel learning modes, with the blended learning model being the most representative one in the current phase. Blended learning, a novel concept introduced in the information age, emphasizes the integration of the benefits of traditional learning methods and online learning. This learning mode not only highlights the prominent role of teachers in guiding, inspiring, and monitoring the learning process but also underlines the importance of learners’ initiative, enthusiasm, and creativity in the learning process. Despite being an early conceptualization, blended learning’s meaning has been expanded by the widespread use of mobile technology and social media in education. The implementation of new technologies, particularly mobile devices, has resulted in the transformation of curriculum design and increased flexibility and autonomy in students’ learning processes (Trujillo Maza et al. 2016 ), rekindling scholarly attention to this learning mode. However, some scholars have raised concerns about the potential drawbacks of the blended learning model, such as its significant impact on the traditional teaching system, the lack of systematic coping strategies and relevant policies in several schools and regions (Moskal et al. 2013 ).

2018.1–2022.12: accelerated transformation period

The period spanning from January 2018 to December 2022 witnessed a rapid transformation in the application of digital technology in education research. The field of digital technology education research reached a peak period of publication, largely influenced by factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic (Yu et al. 2023 ). Research during this period was built upon the achievements, attitudes, and social media of the previous phase, and included more elements that reflect the characteristics of this research field, such as digital literacy, digital competence, and professional development, as depicted in Fig. 6 . Alongside this, scholars’ expectations for the value of digital technology have expanded, and the pursuit of improving learning efficiency and performance is no longer the sole focus. Some research now aims to cultivate learners’ motivation and enhance their self-efficacy by applying digital technology in a reasonable manner, as demonstrated by recent studies (Beardsley et al. 2021 ; Creely et al. 2021 ).

The COVID-19 pandemic has emerged as a crucial backdrop for the digital technology’s role in sustaining global education, as highlighted by recent scholarly research (Zhou et al. 2022 ; Pan and Zhang, 2020 ; Mo et al. 2022 ). The online learning environment, which is supported by digital technology, has become the primary battleground for global education (Yu, 2022 ). This social context has led to various studies being conducted, with some scholars positing that the pandemic has impacted the traditional teaching order while also expanding learning possibilities in terms of patterns and forms (Alabdulaziz, 2021 ). Furthermore, the pandemic has acted as a catalyst for teacher teaching and technological innovation, and this viewpoint has been empirically substantiated (Moorhouse and Wong, 2021 ). Additionally, some scholars believe that the pandemic’s push is a crucial driving force for the digital transformation of the education system, serving as an essential mechanism for overcoming the system’s inertia (Romero et al. 2021 ).

The rapid outbreak of the pandemic posed a challenge to the large-scale implementation of digital technologies, which was influenced by a complex interplay of subjective and objective factors. Objective constraints included the lack of infrastructure in some regions to support digital technologies, while subjective obstacles included psychological resistance among certain students and teachers (Moorhouse, 2021 ). These factors greatly impacted the progress of online learning during the pandemic. Additionally, Timotheou et al. ( 2023 ) conducted a comprehensive systematic review of existing research on digital technology use during the pandemic, highlighting the critical role played by various factors such as learners’ and teachers’ digital skills, teachers’ personal attributes and professional development, school leadership and management, and administration in facilitating the digitalization and transformation of schools.

The current stage of research is characterized by the pivotal term “digital literacy,” denoting a growing interest in learners’ attitudes and adoption of emerging technologies. Initially, the term “literacy” was restricted to fundamental abilities and knowledge associated with books and print materials (McMillan, 1996 ). However, with the swift advancement of computers and digital technology, there have been various attempts to broaden the scope of literacy beyond its traditional meaning, including game literacy (Buckingham and Burn, 2007 ), information literacy (Eisenberg, 2008 ), and media literacy (Turin and Friesem, 2020 ). Similarly, digital literacy has emerged as a crucial concept, and Gilster and Glister ( 1997 ) were the first to introduce this concept, referring to the proficiency in utilizing technology and processing digital information in academic, professional, and daily life settings. In practical educational settings, learners who possess higher digital literacy often exhibit an aptitude for quickly mastering digital devices and applying them intelligently to education and teaching (Yu, 2022 ).

The utilization of digital technology in education has undergone significant changes over the past two decades, and has been a crucial driver of educational reform with each new technological revolution. The impact of these changes on the underlying logic of digital technology education applications has been noticeable. From computer technology to more recent developments such as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and artificial intelligence (AI), the acceleration in digital technology development has been ongoing. Educational reforms spurred by digital technology development continue to be dynamic, as each new digital innovation presents new possibilities and models for teaching practice. This is especially relevant in the post-pandemic era, where the importance of technological progress in supporting teaching cannot be overstated (Mughal et al. 2022 ). Existing digital technologies have already greatly expanded the dimensions of education in both time and space, while future digital technologies aim to expand learners’ perceptions. Researchers have highlighted the potential of integrated technology and immersive technology in the development of the educational metaverse, which is highly anticipated to create a new dimension for the teaching and learning environment, foster a new value system for the discipline of educational technology, and more effectively and efficiently achieve the grand educational blueprint of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (Zhang et al. 2022 ; Li and Yu, 2023 ).

Hotspot evolution analysis (RQ3)

The examination of keyword evolution reveals a consistent trend in the advancement of digital technology education application research. The emergence and transformation of keywords serve as indicators of the varying research interests in this field. Thus, the utilization of the burst detection function available in CiteSpace allowed for the identification of the top 10 burst words that exhibited a high level of burst strength. This outcome is illustrated in Table 7 .

According to the results presented in Table 7 , the explosive terminology within the realm of digital technology education research has exhibited a concentration mainly between the years 2018 and 2022. Prior to this time frame, the emerging keywords were limited to “information technology” and “computer”. Notably, among them, computer, as an emergent keyword, has always had a high explosive intensity from 2008 to 2018, which reflects the important position of computer in digital technology and is the main carrier of many digital technologies such as Learning Management Systems (LMS) and Assessment and Feedback systems (Barlovits et al. 2022 ).

Since 2018, an increasing number of research studies have focused on evaluating the capabilities of learners to accept, apply, and comprehend digital technologies. As indicated by the use of terms such as “digital literacy” and “digital skill,” the assessment of learners’ digital literacy has become a critical task. Scholarly efforts have been directed towards the development of literacy assessment tools and the implementation of empirical assessments. Furthermore, enhancing the digital literacy of both learners and educators has garnered significant attention. (Nagle, 2018 ; Yu, 2022 ). Simultaneously, given the widespread use of various digital technologies in different formal and informal learning settings, promoting learners’ digital skills has become a crucial objective for contemporary schools (Nygren et al. 2019 ; Forde and OBrien, 2022 ).

Since 2020, the field of applied research on digital technology education has witnessed the emergence of three new hotspots, all of which have been affected to some extent by the pandemic. Firstly, digital technology has been widely applied in physical education, which is one of the subjects that has been severely affected by the pandemic (Parris et al. 2022 ; Jiang and Ning, 2022 ). Secondly, digital transformation has become an important measure for most schools, especially higher education institutions, to cope with the impact of the pandemic globally (García-Morales et al. 2021 ). Although the concept of digital transformation was proposed earlier, the COVID-19 pandemic has greatly accelerated this transformation process. Educational institutions must carefully redesign their educational products to face this new situation, providing timely digital learning methods, environments, tools, and support systems that have far-reaching impacts on modern society (Krishnamurthy, 2020 ; Salas-Pilco et al. 2022 ). Moreover, the professional development of teachers has become a key mission of educational institutions in the post-pandemic era. Teachers need to have a certain level of digital literacy and be familiar with the tools and online teaching resources used in online teaching, which has become a research hotspot today. Organizing digital skills training for teachers to cope with the application of emerging technologies in education is an important issue for teacher professional development and lifelong learning (Garzón-Artacho et al. 2021 ). As the main organizers and practitioners of emergency remote teaching (ERT) during the pandemic, teachers must put cognitive effort into their professional development to ensure effective implementation of ERT (Romero-Hall and Jaramillo Cherrez, 2022 ).

The burst word “digital transformation” reveals that we are in the midst of an ongoing digital technology revolution. With the emergence of innovative digital technologies such as ChatGPT and Microsoft 365 Copilot, technology trends will continue to evolve, albeit unpredictably. While the impact of these advancements on school education remains uncertain, it is anticipated that the widespread integration of technology will significantly affect the current education system. Rejecting emerging technologies without careful consideration is unwise. Like any revolution, the technological revolution in the education field has both positive and negative aspects. Detractors argue that digital technology disrupts learning and memory (Baron, 2021 ) or causes learners to become addicted and distracted from learning (Selwyn and Aagaard, 2020 ). On the other hand, the prudent use of digital technology in education offers a glimpse of a golden age of open learning. Educational leaders and practitioners have the opportunity to leverage cutting-edge digital technologies to address current educational challenges and develop a rational path for the sustainable and healthy growth of education.

Discussion on performance analysis (RQ1)

The field of digital technology education application research has experienced substantial growth since the turn of the century, a phenomenon that is quantifiably apparent through an analysis of authorship, country/region contributions, and institutional engagement. This expansion reflects the increased integration of digital technologies in educational settings and the heightened scholarly interest in understanding and optimizing their use.

Discussion on authorship productivity in digital technology education research

The authorship distribution within digital technology education research is indicative of the field’s intellectual structure and depth. A primary figure in this domain is Neil Selwyn, whose substantial citation rate underscores the profound impact of his work. His focus on the implications of digital technology in higher education and educational sociology has proven to be seminal. Selwyn’s research trajectory, especially the exploration of spatiotemporal extensions of education through technology, provides valuable insights into the multifaceted role of digital tools in learning processes (Selwyn et al. 2019 ).

Other notable contributors, like Henderson and Edwards, present diversified research interests, such as the impact of digital technologies during the pandemic and their application in early childhood education, respectively. Their varied focuses highlight the breadth of digital technology education research, encompassing pedagogical innovation, technological adaptation, and policy development.

Discussion on country/region-level productivity and collaboration

At the country/region level, the United Kingdom, specifically England, emerges as a leading contributor with 92 published papers and a significant citation count. This is closely followed by Australia and the United States, indicating a strong English-speaking research axis. Such geographical concentration of scholarly output often correlates with investment in research and development, technological infrastructure, and the prevalence of higher education institutions engaging in cutting-edge research.

China’s notable inclusion as the only non-Western country among the top contributors to the field suggests a growing research capacity and interest in digital technology in education. However, the lower average citation per paper for China could reflect emerging engagement or different research focuses that may not yet have achieved the same international recognition as Western counterparts.

The chord diagram analysis furthers this understanding, revealing dense interconnections between countries like the United States, China, and England, which indicates robust collaborations. Such collaborations are fundamental in addressing global educational challenges and shaping international research agendas.

Discussion on institutional-level contributions to digital technology education

Institutional productivity in digital technology education research reveals a constellation of universities driving the field forward. Monash University and the Australian Catholic University have the highest publication output, signaling Australia’s significant role in advancing digital education research. The University of Oslo’s remarkable average citation count per publication indicates influential research contributions, potentially reflecting high-quality studies that resonate with the broader academic community.

The strong showing of UK institutions, including the University of London, The Open University, and the University of Cambridge, reinforces the UK’s prominence in this research field. Such institutions are often at the forefront of pedagogical innovation, benefiting from established research cultures and funding mechanisms that support sustained inquiry into digital education.

Discussion on journal publication analysis

An examination of journal outputs offers a lens into the communicative channels of the field’s knowledge base. Journals such as Education and Information Technologies , Computers & Education , and the British Journal of Educational Technology not only serve as the primary disseminators of research findings but also as indicators of research quality and relevance. The impact factor (IF) serves as a proxy for the quality and influence of these journals within the academic community.

The high citation counts for articles published in Computers & Education suggest that research disseminated through this medium has a wide-reaching impact and is of particular interest to the field. This is further evidenced by its significant IF of 11.182, indicating that the journal is a pivotal platform for seminal work in the application of digital technology in education.

The authorship, regional, and institutional productivity in the field of digital technology education application research collectively narrate the evolution of this domain since the turn of the century. The prominence of certain authors and countries underscores the importance of socioeconomic factors and existing academic infrastructure in fostering research productivity. Meanwhile, the centrality of specific journals as outlets for high-impact research emphasizes the role of academic publishing in shaping the research landscape.

As the field continues to grow, future research may benefit from leveraging the collaborative networks that have been elucidated through this analysis, perhaps focusing on underrepresented regions to broaden the scope and diversity of research. Furthermore, the stabilization of publication numbers in recent years invites a deeper exploration into potential plateaus in research trends or saturation in certain sub-fields, signaling an opportunity for novel inquiries and methodological innovations.

Discussion on the evolutionary trends (RQ2)

The evolution of the research field concerning the application of digital technology in education over the past two decades is a story of convergence, diversification, and transformation, shaped by rapid technological advancements and shifting educational paradigms.

At the turn of the century, the inception of digital technology in education was largely exploratory, with a focus on how emerging computer technologies could be harnessed to enhance traditional learning environments. Research from this early period was primarily descriptive, reflecting on the potential and challenges of incorporating digital tools into the educational setting. This phase was critical in establishing the fundamental discourse that would guide subsequent research, as it set the stage for understanding the scope and impact of digital technology in learning spaces (Wang et al. 2023 ).

As the first decade progressed, the narrative expanded to encompass the pedagogical implications of digital technologies. This was a period of conceptual debates, where terms like “digital natives” and “disruptive pedagogy” entered the academic lexicon, underscoring the growing acknowledgment of digital technology as a transformative force within education (Bennett and Maton, 2010 ). During this time, the research began to reflect a more nuanced understanding of the integration of technology, considering not only its potential to change where and how learning occurred but also its implications for educational equity and access.

In the second decade, with the maturation of internet connectivity and mobile technology, the focus of research shifted from theoretical speculations to empirical investigations. The proliferation of digital devices and the ubiquity of social media influenced how learners interacted with information and each other, prompting a surge in studies that sought to measure the impact of these tools on learning outcomes. The digital divide and issues related to digital literacy became central concerns, as scholars explored the varying capacities of students and educators to engage with technology effectively.

Throughout this period, there was an increasing emphasis on the individualization of learning experiences, facilitated by adaptive technologies that could cater to the unique needs and pacing of learners (Jing et al. 2023a ). This individualization was coupled with a growing recognition of the importance of collaborative learning, both online and offline, and the role of digital tools in supporting these processes. Blended learning models, which combined face-to-face instruction with online resources, emerged as a significant trend, advocating for a balance between traditional pedagogies and innovative digital strategies.

The later years, particularly marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, accelerated the necessity for digital technology in education, transforming it from a supplementary tool to an essential platform for delivering education globally (Mo et al. 2022 ; Mustapha et al. 2021 ). This era brought about an unprecedented focus on online learning environments, distance education, and virtual classrooms. Research became more granular, examining not just the pedagogical effectiveness of digital tools, but also their role in maintaining continuity of education during crises, their impact on teacher and student well-being, and their implications for the future of educational policy and infrastructure.

Across these two decades, the research field has seen a shift from examining digital technology as an external addition to the educational process, to viewing it as an integral component of curriculum design, instructional strategies, and even assessment methods. The emergent themes have broadened from a narrow focus on specific tools or platforms to include wider considerations such as data privacy, ethical use of technology, and the environmental impact of digital tools.

Moreover, the field has moved from considering the application of digital technology in education as a primarily cognitive endeavor to recognizing its role in facilitating socio-emotional learning, digital citizenship, and global competencies. Researchers have increasingly turned their attention to the ways in which technology can support collaborative skills, cultural understanding, and ethical reasoning within diverse student populations.

In summary, the past over twenty years in the research field of digital technology applications in education have been characterized by a progression from foundational inquiries to complex analyses of digital integration. This evolution has mirrored the trajectory of technology itself, from a facilitative tool to a pervasive ecosystem defining contemporary educational experiences. As we look to the future, the field is poised to delve into the implications of emerging technologies like AI, AR, and VR, and their potential to redefine the educational landscape even further. This ongoing metamorphosis suggests that the application of digital technology in education will continue to be a rich area of inquiry, demanding continual adaptation and forward-thinking from educators and researchers alike.

Discussion on the study of research hotspots (RQ3)

The analysis of keyword evolution in digital technology education application research elucidates the current frontiers in the field, reflecting a trajectory that is in tandem with the rapidly advancing digital age. This landscape is sculpted by emergent technological innovations and shaped by the demands of an increasingly digital society.

Interdisciplinary integration and pedagogical transformation

One of the frontiers identified from recent keyword bursts includes the integration of digital technology into diverse educational contexts, particularly noted with the keyword “physical education.” The digitalization of disciplines traditionally characterized by physical presence illustrates the pervasive reach of technology and signifies a push towards interdisciplinary integration where technology is not only a facilitator but also a transformative agent. This integration challenges educators to reconceptualize curriculum delivery to accommodate digital tools that can enhance or simulate the physical aspects of learning.

Digital literacy and skills acquisition

Another pivotal frontier is the focus on “digital literacy” and “digital skill”, which has intensified in recent years. This suggests a shift from mere access to technology towards a comprehensive understanding and utilization of digital tools. In this realm, the emphasis is not only on the ability to use technology but also on critical thinking, problem-solving, and the ethical use of digital resources (Yu, 2022 ). The acquisition of digital literacy is no longer an additive skill but a fundamental aspect of modern education, essential for navigating and contributing to the digital world.

Educational digital transformation

The keyword “digital transformation” marks a significant research frontier, emphasizing the systemic changes that education institutions must undergo to align with the digital era (Romero et al. 2021 ). This transformation includes the redesigning of learning environments, pedagogical strategies, and assessment methods to harness digital technology’s full potential. Research in this area explores the complexity of institutional change, addressing the infrastructural, cultural, and policy adjustments needed for a seamless digital transition.

Engagement and participation

Further exploration into “engagement” and “participation” underscores the importance of student-centered learning environments that are mediated by technology. The current frontiers examine how digital platforms can foster collaboration, inclusivity, and active learning, potentially leading to more meaningful and personalized educational experiences. Here, the use of technology seeks to support the emotional and cognitive aspects of learning, moving beyond the transactional view of education to one that is relational and interactive.

Professional development and teacher readiness

As the field evolves, “professional development” emerges as a crucial area, particularly in light of the pandemic which necessitated emergency remote teaching. The need for teacher readiness in a digital age is a pressing frontier, with research focusing on the competencies required for educators to effectively integrate technology into their teaching practices. This includes familiarity with digital tools, pedagogical innovation, and an ongoing commitment to personal and professional growth in the digital domain.

Pandemic as a catalyst

The recent pandemic has acted as a catalyst for accelerated research and application in this field, particularly in the domains of “digital transformation,” “professional development,” and “physical education.” This period has been a litmus test for the resilience and adaptability of educational systems to continue their operations in an emergency. Research has thus been directed at understanding how digital technologies can support not only continuity but also enhance the quality and reach of education in such contexts.

Ethical and societal considerations

The frontier of digital technology in education is also expanding to consider broader ethical and societal implications. This includes issues of digital equity, data privacy, and the sociocultural impact of technology on learning communities. The research explores how educational technology can be leveraged to address inequities and create more equitable learning opportunities for all students, regardless of their socioeconomic background.

Innovation and emerging technologies

Looking forward, the frontiers are set to be influenced by ongoing and future technological innovations, such as artificial intelligence (AI) (Wu and Yu, 2023 ; Chen et al. 2022a ). The exploration into how these technologies can be integrated into educational practices to create immersive and adaptive learning experiences represents a bold new chapter for the field.

In conclusion, the current frontiers of research on the application of digital technology in education are multifaceted and dynamic. They reflect an overarching movement towards deeper integration of technology in educational systems and pedagogical practices, where the goals are not only to facilitate learning but to redefine it. As these frontiers continue to expand and evolve, they will shape the educational landscape, requiring a concerted effort from researchers, educators, policymakers, and technologists to navigate the challenges and harness the opportunities presented by the digital revolution in education.

Conclusions and future research

Conclusions.

The utilization of digital technology in education is a research area that cuts across multiple technical and educational domains and continues to experience dynamic growth due to the continuous progress of technology. In this study, a systematic review of this field was conducted through bibliometric techniques to examine its development trajectory. The primary focus of the review was to investigate the leading contributors, productive national institutions, significant publications, and evolving development patterns. The study’s quantitative analysis resulted in several key conclusions that shed light on this research field’s current state and future prospects.

(1) The research field of digital technology education applications has entered a stage of rapid development, particularly in recent years due to the impact of the pandemic, resulting in a peak of publications. Within this field, several key authors (Selwyn, Henderson, Edwards, etc.) and countries/regions (England, Australia, USA, etc.) have emerged, who have made significant contributions. International exchanges in this field have become frequent, with a high degree of internationalization in academic research. Higher education institutions in the UK and Australia are the core productive forces in this field at the institutional level.

(2) Education and Information Technologies , Computers & Education , and the British Journal of Educational Technology are notable journals that publish research related to digital technology education applications. These journals are affiliated with the research field of educational technology and provide effective communication platforms for sharing digital technology education applications.

(3) Over the past two decades, research on digital technology education applications has progressed from its early stages of budding, initial development, and critical exploration to accelerated transformation, and it is currently approaching maturity. Technological progress and changes in the times have been key driving forces for educational transformation and innovation, and both have played important roles in promoting the continuous development of education.

(4) Influenced by the pandemic, three emerging frontiers have emerged in current research on digital technology education applications, which are physical education, digital transformation, and professional development under the promotion of digital technology. These frontier research hotspots reflect the core issues that the education system faces when encountering new technologies. The evolution of research hotspots shows that technology breakthroughs in education’s original boundaries of time and space create new challenges. The continuous self-renewal of education is achieved by solving one hotspot problem after another.

The present study offers significant practical implications for scholars and practitioners in the field of digital technology education applications. Firstly, it presents a well-defined framework of the existing research in this area, serving as a comprehensive guide for new entrants to the field and shedding light on the developmental trajectory of this research domain. Secondly, the study identifies several contemporary research hotspots, thus offering a valuable decision-making resource for scholars aiming to explore potential research directions. Thirdly, the study undertakes an exhaustive analysis of published literature to identify core journals in the field of digital technology education applications, with Sustainability being identified as a promising open access journal that publishes extensively on this topic. This finding can potentially facilitate scholars in selecting appropriate journals for their research outputs.

Limitation and future research

Influenced by some objective factors, this study also has some limitations. First of all, the bibliometrics analysis software has high standards for data. In order to ensure the quality and integrity of the collected data, the research only selects the periodical papers in SCIE and SSCI indexes, which are the core collection of Web of Science database, and excludes other databases, conference papers, editorials and other publications, which may ignore some scientific research and original opinions in the field of digital technology education and application research. In addition, although this study used professional software to carry out bibliometric analysis and obtained more objective quantitative data, the analysis and interpretation of data will inevitably have a certain subjective color, and the influence of subjectivity on data analysis cannot be completely avoided. As such, future research endeavors will broaden the scope of literature screening and proactively engage scholars in the field to gain objective and state-of-the-art insights, while minimizing the adverse impact of personal subjectivity on research analysis.

Data availability

The datasets analyzed during the current study are available in the Dataverse repository: https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/F9QMHY

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Zhejiang Provincial Social Science Planning Project, “Mechanisms and Pathways for Empowering Classroom Teaching through Learning Spaces under the Strategy of High-Quality Education Development”, the 2022 National Social Science Foundation Education Youth Project “Research on the Strategy of Creating Learning Space Value and Empowering Classroom Teaching under the background of ‘Double Reduction’” (Grant No. CCA220319) and the National College Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training Program of China (Grant No. 202310337023).

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Wang, C., Chen, X., Yu, T. et al. Education reform and change driven by digital technology: a bibliometric study from a global perspective. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 11 , 256 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-02717-y

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In This Article Expand or collapse the "in this article" section Education Reform and School Change

Introduction, 1990–present, implementation, sustainability and institutionalization, restructuring and reculturing, systemic educational reform, school improvement and turnaround, organizational learning, inquiry, networking, and capacity building, change agents, international comparisons and globalization, parents and communities, curriculum, teaching and learning, standards and accountability, school organization and culture, race, class, and language, culturally responsive teaching, urban schools and underserved populations, disability and inclusion, stage development theories, personal, emotional, and psychodynamic, institutional theory, related articles expand or collapse the "related articles" section about, about related articles close popup.

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• Administrator Preparation
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• Continuous Improvement and "High Leverage" Educational Problems
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• Measurement for Improvement in Education
• Organizing for Continuous Improvement in Education
• Queering the English Language Arts (ELA) Writing Classroom
• Scale and Sustainability of Education Innovation and Improvement
• Scaling Up Research-based Educational Practices
• School Culture
• School Reform
• Social Justice
• The Policy Context of United States Educational Innovation and Improvement
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Education Reform and School Change by Andrew Hargreaves , Corrie Stone-Johnson , Kristin L. Kew LAST REVIEWED: 21 April 2021 LAST MODIFIED: 21 January 2016 DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199756810-0014

Educational change is a central topic of inquiry in education, and also a recognized field of study, as exemplified in the International Handbook of Educational Change , the Journal of Educational Change , a special interest group of the American Educational Research Association devoted to educational change, and widely used texts by founding authors of the field on core concepts such as the meaning of educational change. In the past, eagerness about what to change overlooked the complex processes of how people changed or failed to change in practice. The field therefore addresses and analyzes deliberately designed as well as implicit and unintended processes of educational change, such as innovation, implementation, improvement and resistance; the forces that drive change externally in policy and society and internally within schools and classrooms; the orchestration by and impact of change on its various agents, such as teachers, students, parents, and leaders; the experience and articulation of change across various educational domains such as pedagogy, curriculum, and assessment; and the evolution of change processes and change strategies over time, as well as their geographical distribution and variation across different systems and countries. The movement of research and development activity beyond simply what to change toward how to change, and the causes and consequences of these change processes, started in the post-Sputnik era of the 1960s in the United States, which addressed the problem of diffusion of individual innovations. Difficulties in achieving successful diffusion then prompted an interest in planned educational change, though this approach was criticized in turn for neglecting the various meanings that people attached to the change process as they experienced it. This resulted in an increasing emphasis on creating more collaborative professional cultures and professional communities in schools to develop common purpose and shared meanings. The impact of these changes since 1970 has been waves of reform that have left many educators confused and burned out, many schools with a seemingly haphazard string of unconnected reforms, and still many students not achieving. By the turn of the 21st century, frustration with these successive waves of change efforts ushered in an era of large-scale, administratively and politically coordinated reform initiatives and their uneven effects, as played out in different systems and countries across the globe—especially those that perform the strongest on international tests of educational achievement and those that are increasingly left behind. This entry explores the key literature and research on these processes and patterns of educational change, and their variations across time and space.

Classic Texts

This section includes some of the most influential and classic texts in educational change and reform. Divided into three timeframes—1960–1974, 1975–1989, and 1990–present—these works comprise the first consciously constructed forms of change and demonstrate the growth of thinking in the field of educational reform from its earliest days. The most recent pieces detail modern educational change from multiple perspectives.

These early classic texts also deal with some of the first consciously constructed forms of change, especially innovation, as well as presenting the first ideas about the developmental stages through which change processes pass. To read about the concept of organizational learning, see Argyris and Schon 1974 . For a critique of the cultures of silence that surround the notion of banking education and the development of a new pedagogy arising from the concerns of oppressed communities, see Freire 1970 . For a discussion of planned educational change, see Gross, et al. 1971 and Havelock 1973 . For details on school innovation and planned change, see Hoyle 1969 . For a discussion of loss and change, see Marris 1974 . To better understand diffusion of innovations, see Rogers 1962 . To explore culture and change, see Sarason 1971 . To read about educational innovation in a classroom setting, see Griffin, et al. 2012 (cited under Innovation ) and Smith and Geoffrey 1968 .

Argyris, Chris, and Donald A. Schon. 1974. Theory in practice: Increasing professional effectiveness . San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

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Argyris and Schon launch the concept of organizational learning into the field of organizational change. They distinguish between single-loop learning that leads to refinements in existing practice, and double-loop learning that affects value systems, beliefs, and forms of understanding.

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Freire, Paulo. 1970. Pedagogy of the oppressed . Translated by Myra Bergman-Ramos. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin.

This is probably the single most important book on educational change from the standpoint of critical theory. Based on work with literacy development among peasant communities in Latin America, it critiques the cultures of silence that surround authoritarian and oppressive forms of banking education, and proposes a consciousness-raising curriculum and pedagogy arising out of the cultural concerns of oppressed communities.

Gross, Neil C., Joseph B. Giacquinta, and Marilyn Bernstein. 1971. Implementing organizational innovations: A study of planned change in schools . New York: Basic Books.

Based on research conducted at the Center for Research and Development on Educational Differences, this book presents one of the first studies on the trajectories and outcomes of planned educational change.

Havelock, Ronald G. 1973. The change agent’s guide to innovation in education . Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Educational Technology.

The function and method of change agents have been studied in various cultures and professions, and this book applies those findings to schools. The authors explain six stages of planned change: building a relationship between client and change agent, diagnosing the problem, acquiring relevant resources, choosing the solution, gaining acceptance, and stabilizing the innovation and generating self-renewal.

Hoyle, Eric. 1969. How does the curriculum change? Journal of Curriculum Studies 1.3: 230–239.

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This early article focuses on school innovation and planned educational change. It argues that for any curriculum innovation to become an effective improvement on an existing practice, it must “take” with the school and become fully institutionalized. Genuine innovation does not occur unless teachers become personally committed to ensuring its success.

Marris, Peter. 1974. Loss and change . New York: Pantheon.

This book examines people’s experiences of change as ones of loss and bereavement, most obviously in the case of bereavement itself but also in the case of other changes such as innovation that create powerful feelings of loss too.

Rogers, Everett M. 1962. Diffusion of innovations . New York: Free Press of Glencoe.

Rogers explains how new ideas spread or are diffused via communication channels over time. Such innovations are initially perceived as uncertain and even risky. Most people seek out others like themselves who have already adopted the new idea. Thus the diffusion process consists of a few individuals who first adopt an innovation, then spread the word among their circle of acquaintances.

Sarason, Seymour B. 1971. The culture of the school and the problem of change . Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

In the field’s first extended discussion of culture and change, Sarason details how change can affect a school’s culturally diverse environment—either through the implementation of new programs or as a result of federally imposed regulations. In this book, Sarason challenges assumptions about institutions and presents evidence that the federal effort to change and improve schools has not succeeded.

Smith, Louis M., and William Geoffrey. 1968. The complexities of an urban classroom . New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.

This is the first of a series of books spanning more than fifteen years on the nature and fate of educational innovation in a classroom setting. It is one of the first books to disclose how clarity about what to change is no substitute for a clear method or strategy of how to bring about desired changes

These classic pieces, written between 1975 and 1989, demonstrate the growth of thinking in the field of educational reform from its earliest days. For a view on the study of change implementation, see Berman and McLaughlin 1975 . To better understand change in teaching practices over a century, see Cuban 1984 . To learn about the Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM), see Hall and Loucks 1979 . For a look at the first analysis of educational change from the technological, political, and cultural perspectives, see House 1979 . Huberman and Miles 1984 is one of the first analyses of process and outcomes of innovations, and Lortie 1975 is the foundational book on the culture of teaching.

Berman, Paul, and Milbrey Wallin McLaughlin. 1975. Federal programs supporting educational change . Vol. 1, A model of educational change . Santa Monica, CA: RAND.

This classic report, the first in a series of RAND studies on change agent programs, analyzed the then-current state of knowledge of planned change in education, which proposed a conceptual model of factors affecting change processes within school districts. The literature review revealed the need for a more systematic understanding of the processes of implementation.

Cuban, Larry. 1984. How teachers taught: Constancy and change in American classrooms . New York: Longman.

Cuban describes teaching practices in the United States from 1890 to 1980. The author offers explanations for continuity and change in public education, including school as a form of social control, long-held assumptions and beliefs about teaching and learning, and the implementation of reforms.

Hall, Gene E., and Susan Loucks. 1979. Implementing innovations in schools: A concerns-based approach . Austin, TX: Research and Development Center for Teacher Education.

Hall and Loucks created their Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) to describe change as it affects individuals and to prompt more successful change efforts. CBAM views the teacher as the focal point in school improvement efforts, yet also acknowledges social and organizational influences. This paper describes the application of the model to a curriculum implementation effort based on an understanding of teachers’ concerns.

House, Ernie 1979. Three perspectives on innovation: The technological, the political and the cultural . Washington, DC: Office for Educational Research and Improvement.

This foundational report was the first to analyze educational change from three perspectives, illustrating different aspects of change issues that are raised as each perspective—technological, political, and cultural—is used as a lens to analyze change efforts.

Huberman, Alan M., and Matthew B. Miles. 1984. Innovation up close . New York: Plenum.

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This volume represents a distillation and analysis of twelve site reports; it is one of the earliest empirical analyses of processes and outcomes of innovation and school improvement.

Lortie, Dan C. 1975. Schoolteacher: A sociological study . Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.

In this foundational book, Lortie draws on survey and interview data to understand and analyze the work and culture of teaching. The unifying theme of this book is a search for the orientations and sentiments unique to teachers, which he characterizes as presentism, conservatism, and individualism.

These important texts detail modern educational change from multiple perspectives. For a better understanding of the three-stage theory of educational change—initiation, implementation, and institutionalization—see Fullan 2007 . This book is the most widely cited in the field and is the most recently revised version. To better understand change in urban high schools, see Louis and Miles 1990 . For an analysis of learning organizations, see Senge 1990 .

Fullan, Michael. 2007. The new meaning of educational change . 4th ed. New York: Teachers College Press.

This book is the most widely cited in the field of educational change. A fundamentally revised edition of the original 1982 book, it sets out a three stage theory of educational change: initiation, implementation, and institutionalization. Fullan also describes the roles and responsibilities of each member in the change process, including the administrator, teacher, parent, student, consultant, district, and governments.

Louis, Karen Seashore, and Matthew B. Miles. 1990. Improving the urban high school: What works and why . New York: Teachers College Press.

This book of multiple case studies on change and non-change in urban high schools points to the need for greater school-level involvement in educational reform processes, especially in terms of leadership.

Senge, Peter M. 1990. The fifth discipline: The art and practice of the learning organization . New York: Doubleday.

Senge sets out the basic principles of what he calls the learning organization: turning a process of organizational learning into an institutional aspiration. Through basic disciplines that include personal mastery and systems thinking, Senge’s work challenges leaders to face the disabilities in their organizations and to practice the disciplines that will create improved performance through ongoing problem-solving capacity.

This section contains pivotal pieces that offer approaches and strategies to bring about and sustain educational change. Included are works on the most current thinking in innovation, policy and program implementation, the sustainability and institutionalism of educational reform, restructuring and reculturing of schools, and building professional learning communities.

Some approaches and strategies to bring about change are based on single innovations. The pieces in this section reflect the most current thinking in the area of innovation. For a view of innovation and diffusion theory in the 21st century, see Bentley 2010 . To better understand the impact of disruptive innovation in education, see Christensen, et al. 2008 .

Bentley, Tom. 2010. Innovation and diffusion as a theory of change. In The second international handbook of educational change . Edited by Andy Hargreaves, Ann Lieberman, Michael Fullan, and David Hopkins, 29–46. Springer International Handbooks of Education 23. Berlin: Springer.

Bentley brings innovation and diffusion theory into the 21st century by indicating that in fast-flowing knowledge-based societies, more change will and should take place through processes that are open, networked, and user-driven. In such an increasingly technologically enhanced environment, the task of educational and social reformers, he argues, is to create the open architectures in which innovative processes can flourish.

Christensen, Clayton M., Curtis W. Johnson, and Michael B. Horn. 2008. Disrupting class: How disruptive innovation will change the way the world learns . New York: McGraw-Hill.

Christensen takes this book beyond his study of the “Innovator’s Dilemma” in business, to combine with colleagues in order to understand the impact of disruptive (as opposed to incremental) innovation in education. Computer technology in education is bringing about profound transformations in education that public schools are finding hard to accommodate, with the consequence that they may be overtaken by other kinds of educational provision.

Griffin, Patrick, Esther Care, and Barry. McGaw. 2012. “ The changing role of education and schools .” In Assessment and teaching of 21st century skills . Edited by Patrick Griffin, Esther Care, and Barry McGaw, 1–15. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer.

According to Griffin, Care, and McGaw, educational systems must change in response to the increasing demand for information-technology skilled workers. This chapter discusses the Assessment and Teaching of Twenty-First Century Skills Project (ATC21S), which investigated the methodological and technological barriers to the assessment of Learning Through Digital Networks and Collaborative Problem Solving. The project provides educators, researchers, and policy makers with recommendations to develop learning environments and assessments that support the development of 21st-century skills.

This section explores the complexities and challenges facing schools as they implement various educational reforms. In particular, it focuses on various aspects of implementation, including policy implementation and program implementation. For an overview of policy implementation see Honig 2006 and McLaughlin 1998 . To better understand evaluating program implementation, see Leithwood and Montgomery 1980 . For an exploration of the implementation of planned change, see McLaughlin 1990 . For a definition and in-depth exploration of implementation as it relates to curriculum research, see O’Donnell 2008 . For scaling up school reform, see Datnow, et al. 2002 .

Datnow, Amanda, Lea Hubbard, and Hugh Mehan. 2002. Extending educational reform: From one school to many . London: RoutledgeFalmer.

Authors examine data from several nationwide studies in an effort to provide a comprehensive understanding of “scaling up” school reform. This book explores the complex interactions between institutions and individuals and their influence on the implementation of reform. Readers are provided with guidelines for policy and practice.

Honig, Meredith I., ed. 2006. New directions in education policy implementation: Confronting complexity . Albany: State Univ. of New York Press.

This book describes how education policy implementation as a field of research and practice has amounted to a search for “implementable” policies on the one hand—those that in practice resemble policy designs—and “successful” policies on the other, which produce demonstrable improvements in students’ school performance.

Leithwood, Kenneth A., and D. J. Montgomery. 1980. Evaluating program implementation. Evaluation Review 4.2: 193–214.

DOI: 10.1177/0193841X8000400202 Save Citation » Export Citation » Share Citation »

A methodology for evaluating program implementation is described. Requirements for such a methodology are derived from an analysis of the functions to be performed by implementation evaluation, the nature of the program being implemented, and characteristics of the implementation process.

McLaughlin, Milbrey Wallin. 1990. The RAND change agent study revisited: Macro perspectives and micro realities. Educational Researcher 19.9: 11–16.

DOI: 10.3102/0013189X019009011 Save Citation » Export Citation » Share Citation »

This article revisits the classic RAND Change Agent study, undertaken 1973–1978, which indicated a significant shift in the ways people thought about implementing planned change in education. The article reasserts RAND’s finding that effective projects are characterized by mutual adaptation rather than uniform implementation, and underscores the essential contribution of teachers’ perspectives as informants and guides to policy.

McLaughlin, Milbrey Wallin. 1998. Listening and learning from the field: Tales of policy implementation and situated practice. In The international handbook of educational change . Part 1. Edited by Andy Hargreaves, Ann Lieberman, Michael Fullan, and David Hopkins. 70–84. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic.

The “implementation problem” was discovered in the early 1970s as policy analysts took a look at the school level consequences of the Great Society’s sweeping education reforms. Comprehensive intergovernmental initiatives meant that implementation no longer was just primarily a management problem, confined to a single institution, but instead stretched across levels of government and across agents.

O’Donnell, C. L. 2008. Defining, conceptualizing, and measuring fidelity of implementation and its relationship to outcomes in K–12 curriculum intervention research. Review of Educational Research 78.1: 33–84.

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The results of this review indicate that there are too few studies to guide researchers on how fidelity of implementation to core curriculum interventions can be measured and related to outcomes. This review attempts to clarify the definition, conceptualization, and measurement of fidelity of implementation and to guide future researchers in understanding how fidelity of implementation can be used to adjust or interpret outcome measures.

In recent years, increasing attention has been paid to the sustainability of changes over time and across systems. Anderson 2010 examines the evolution of change over time. Hargreaves and Goodson 2006 details change over a thirty-year period in the United States and Canada and explores the sustainability of change in these contexts. Hargreaves 2002 explores how social geographies contribute to or undermine sustainable improvements. Meyer and Rowan 1977 and Meyer and Rowan 2012 looks at the ways in which organizational structures affect innovation or change in schools.

Anderson, Stephen. 2010. Moving change: Evolutionary perspectives of educational change. In The second handbook of educational change . Edited by Andy Hargreaves, Ann Lieberman, Michal Fullan, and David Hopkins, 65–84. Springer International Handbooks of Education 23. Berlin: Springer.

In this chapter, Anderson revisits some of the taken-for-granted concepts in the field of educational change. The author focuses on some significant areas of debate and suggests areas for further research to think about change as a process that evolves over time.

Hargreaves, Andy. 2002. Sustainability of educational change: The role of social geographies. Journal of Educational Change 3:189–214.

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The paper examines the conceptual and strategic role of social geographies in contributing to or undermining sustainable school improvement. It develops a definition of sustainability as involving improvement over time, within available or achievable resources, that does not negatively affect the surrounding environment and that promotes ecological diversity and capacity more widely. This analysis is then applied to a framework of seven strategic geographies of educational change.

Hargreaves, Andy, and Ivor Goodson. 2006. Educational change over time? The sustainability and non-sustainability of three decades of secondary school change and continuity. Educational Administration Quarterly 42.1: 3–41.

DOI: 10.1177/0013161X05277975 Save Citation » Export Citation » Share Citation »

This article presents the conceptual framework and key research findings from a study of long-term educational change over time. Educational change is shaped by the convergence of large-scale economic and demographic shifts that reaffirm the traditional identities and practices of conventional high schools and pull innovative ones back toward the traditional norm in an age of standardization.

Meyer, John W., and Brian Rowan. 1977. Institutional organizations: Formal structures as myth and ceremony. American Journal of Sociology 83:340–363.

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Many formal organizational structures arise as reflections of rationalized institutional rules. These rules function as myths which organizations incorporate, gaining legitimacy, resources, stability, and enhanced survival prospects in the face of efforts to bring about innovation or change.

Meyer, Heinz –Dieter, and Brian Rowan. 2012. The institutionalism in education . Albany: State Univ. of New York Press.

Explores the ways in which education as an institution must be redefined to include new forms of educational organizations. Contributing authors provide conceptual tools and empirical assessments to overcome the challenges this new institutionalism poses to reigning theories. Readers will gain insight into possibilities for institutional reform and innovation.

Change efforts sometimes try to transform organizations by restructuring them, whereas others concentrate more on alterations of relationships and interactions through “reculturing.” To learn about the role of micropolitics in educational reform, see Blasé and Bjork 2010 . To better understand how districts have been restructured, see Brouillette 1996 . For a view of the role of trust in school improvement, see Bryk and Schneider 2002 . To read more about the role of collaboration as a means of educational reform, see Darling-Hammond 1997 . To read about leadership in a culture of change, see Fullan 2001 . For a deeper look at school restructuring, see Lieberman 1995 and Newmann and Wehlage 1995 . For a better understanding of how prevailing cultural beliefs perpetuate inequality in an urban high school, see McQuillan 1998 . For a look at lack of change in teaching pedagogies over time related to educational reform and policy, see Cuban 2013 .

Blasé, Joseph, and Bjork, Lars. 2010. The micropolitics of educational change and reform: Cracking open the black box. In The second international handbook of educational change . Edited by Andy Hargreaves, Ann Lieberman, Michal Fullan, and David Hopkins, 237–258. Springer International Handbooks of Education 23. Berlin: Springer.

This article builds on and updates Blasé’s past work on the micropolitics of educational change; showing how change at the micro level is affected by the competing and complementary interests of different groups in the educational process as they converge and collide.

Brouillette, Liane. 1996. A geology of school reform: The successive restructuring of a school district . Albany: State Univ. of New York Press.

This book describes a study that focused on how successive waves of reform interacted within a single school district from its beginnings in the early 1950s through the early 1990s. The study examines the multiple misunderstandings that occurred among individuals whose formative experiences with public schools were shaped by widely differing historical circumstances and philosophical perspectives.

Bryk, Anthony S., and Barbara L. Schneider. 2002. Trust in schools: A core resource for improvement . New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

On the basis of a three-year study of reform in twelve different elementary school communities in Chicago, the authors establish the importance of relational trust as one of the key variables that affects student achievement. Developing relational trust among teachers, principals, students, and parents is therefore a key component of the culture of change leading to substantive and sustained school improvement.

Cuban, Larry. 2013. Inside the black box of classroom practice: Change without reform in American education . Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.

Cuban discusses the complex and often contradictory relationship between numerous attempts at educational reform by policy makers over the last two centuries and relatively stable teaching practices in the classroom. He examines the interconnectedness of policy and practice from various viewpoints, including changes in medical practice policy.

Darling-Hammond, Linda. 1997. The right to learn: A blueprint for creating schools that work . San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Darling-Hammond emphasizes the process of learning rather than testing. She believes that what’s wrong with public schools can be attributed to excessive bureaucratization that leaves teachers with little time for teaching. The American educational system is predicated on a “factory model” that processes students instead of teaching them. She believes teachers must be prepared to collaborate more often and spend more time “teaching for understanding.”

Fullan, Michael. 2001. Leading in a culture of change . San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Bringing together the literature of leadership and change in business and in education, Fullan critiques naïve changes based on transplantation of systemic reforms from one context to another without thought for the local cultures and contexts in which the transposed reforms have to be developed. He then demonstrates how relationships between large-scale transformation and local culture can be pursued through five core competencies.

Lieberman, Ann, ed. 1995. The work of restructuring schools: Building from the ground up . New York: Teachers College Press.

The contributors to this work tell a set of stories about schools, teachers, and administrators who face district and state mandates concerning restructuring. It describes the trials and tribulations that they encounter and offers insight into the lessons that can be learned from these individual experiences.

McQuillan, Patrick J. 1998. Educational opportunity in an urban American high school: A cultural analysis . Albany: State Univ. of New York Press.

This five-year ethnographic study examines issues of educational opportunity at a multiethnic high school. Focusing on the beliefs and values of students, teachers, and administrators, this study reveals how prevailing cultural beliefs, the collective nature of the student population, and the structure of the school system worked in concert to foster inequality. This study considers the implications for promoting educational opportunity more effectively.

Newmann, Fred M., and Gary L. Wehlage. 1995. Successful school restructuring . Madison, WI: Center on Organization and Restructuring of Schools.

Since the late 1980s, education reformers in the United States have sought ways to “restructure” schools to boost student performance through such strategies as site-based management, interdisciplinary team teaching, flexible scheduling, and assessment by portfolio. From 1990 to 1995, the Center on Organization and Restructuring of Schools examined these questions by analyzing data from more than 1,500 schools throughout the United States.

• Professional Learning Communities

One of the forms of reculturing schools is the development of professional learning communities. The following works describe the evolution of professional learning communities and discuss the challenges to implementation as well as the possibilities for improvement. For a differentiation of professional learning communities from performance-training sects, see Hargreaves 2002 . For a definition of professional learning communities and an exploration of what happens when schools develop them, see Hord 1997 . To look at the establishment of collaborative cultures, see Lieberman 1990 . To see how building professional learning communities can improve student achievement, see McLaughlin and Talbert 2006 . To read about creating communities of learning in a context of accountability and standardization, see Meier 2002 . To read about some of the challenges of professional learning communities, see Stoll and Louis 2007 . To learn about creating successful learning environments through leadership, see Robertson and Timperley 2011 .

Hargreaves, Andy. 2002. Professional learning communities and performance training sects: The emerging apartheid of school improvement. In Effective leadership for school improvement . Edited by Alma Harris, C. Day, M. Hadfield, D. Hopkins, A. Hargreaves, and C. Chapman. London: RoutledgeFalmer.

The original intention of professional learning communities was to develop teacher-based inquiry into student learning and classroom teaching. In this article, Hargreaves compares this original purpose against the political tendency of such so-called communities to become devices of compliance and groupthink where teacher teams are driven to analyze numerical data in order to make swift interventions within mandated programs of curriculum and instruction.

Hord, Shirley M. 1997. Professional learning communities: Communities of continuous inquiry and improvement . Austin, TX: Southwest Educational Development Laboratory.

Inventor of the concept “professional learning communities,” Hord defines what is meant by “professional learning community.” She describes what happens when a school staff studies, works, plans, and takes action collectively on behalf of increased learning for students, and she discusses what is known about creating such communities of professionals in schools. The literature, she notes, indicates that professional learning communities produce positive outcomes for both staff and students.

Lieberman, Ann, ed. 1990. Schools as collaborative cultures . Lewes, UK: Falmer.

The contributions in this volume articulate and exemplify the key role played by professional collaboration in school development. The authors show how schools need to establish collaborative cultures as a precondition for their own development.

McLaughlin, Milbrey Wallin, and Joan E. Talbert. 2006. Building school-based teacher learning communities: Professional strategies to improve student achievement . New York: Teachers College Press.

This book builds more programmatically from the authors’ earlier work on professional communities in high schools, to examine efforts to establish and develop professional learning communities in schools that enhance student achievement. Its most important contribution is in establishing the stages of development, from novice to mature, through which professional learning communities pass over time.

Meier, Deborah. 2002. In schools we trust: Creating communities of learning in an era of testing and standardization . Boston: Beacon.

In contrast to proponents of tests and standardization, this author examines how successful change occurs by building trust in the authority and judgment of those who know children best, so that schools are trustworthy.

Robertson, Jan, and Helen Timperley. 2011. Leadership and learning . Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

DOI: 10.4135/9781446288931 Save Citation » Export Citation » Share Citation »

Contributors to this book examine learning through three themes: empowering relationships, patterns of leadership distribution, and leadership for the improvement of teaching and learning. This book aims to provide a comprehensive view of the elements needed to promote successful learning environments in the educational community through leadership.

Stoll, Louise, and Karen Seashore Louis, eds. 2007. Professional learning communities: Divergence, depth and dilemmas . Maidenhead, UK: McGraw-Hill.

This collection of chapters edited by British and US experts Stoll and Louis delves deeper into the concept of professional learning communities, unearthing their challenges and complexities, as well as their many varying possibilities.

Recently, change strategy has concentrated on interrelated changes orchestrated centrally that may depend on pressures and demands or on capacity building and support, and that in turn can provoke organized responses that take the form of social movements. To read about social movements in the United States, see Anyon 2005 and Oakes, et al. 2000 . To see an analysis of the impact of poverty on systemic change, see Berliner 2006 . For perspectives on the travel of school reform approaches from one system to another, see Datnow, et al. 2002 and Stein, et al. 2010 . For a better understanding of large-scale reform efforts, see Elmore 1995 and Hargreaves 2010 . To read the insights of some of the leading educational change experts on systemic reform, see Hargreaves and Fullan 2008 . For a view of system leadership, see Hopkins 2007 . For some ideas on global educational change and reform from leading experts in the field, see Malone 2013 .

Anyon, Jean. 2005. Radical possibilities: Public policy, urban education, and a new social movement . New York: Routledge.

Jean Anyon counters the conventional approach to systemic reform as orchestrated local or national policy intervention by describing five social movements in US cities, which offer insights into securing economic and educational justice for America’s poor families and students.

Berliner, David. 2006. Our impoverished view of educational reform. Teachers College Record 108.6: 949–995

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This analysis is about the role of poverty in school reform. Data from a number of sources are used to demonstrate that poverty in the United States is greater and of longer duration than in other rich nations, and that poverty is associated with academic performance that is well below international means. It is argued that poverty places severe limits on what can be accomplished through school reform efforts alone.

Datnow, Amanda, Lea Hubbard, and Hugh Mehan. 2002. Extending educational reform from one school to many . London and New York: RoutledgeFalmer.

Reform programs that have proved to be a success in one school are often unsuccessful when adopted by other schools. This book looks at why change does not occur on a large-scale basis and how the identified problems can be surmounted.

Elmore, Richard F. 1995. Getting to scale with good educational practice. Harvard Educational Review 66.1: 1–26.

DOI: 10.17763/haer.66.1.g73266758j348t33 Save Citation » Export Citation » Share Citation »

Elmore analyzes the role of school organization and incentive structures in large-scale adoption of innovative practices. Two previous reform attempts are evaluated to demonstrate that large-scale reform efforts, under current conditions, will be ineffective and transient. The article concludes with recommendations for addressing the issue of scale.

Hargreaves, Andy. 2010. Change from without: Lessons from other countries, systems, and sectors. In The second international handbook of educational change . Edited by Andy Hargreaves, Ann Lieberman, Michael Fullan, and David Hopkins, 105–117. Springer International Handbooks of Education 23. Berlin: Springer.

DOI: 10.1007/978-90-481-2660-6_6 Save Citation » Export Citation » Share Citation »

This article reviews the research, including the author’s own, on how educational systems can learn from other systems and sectors without directly transposing solutions from one to the other.

Hargreaves, Andy, and Michael Fullan, eds. 2008. Change wars . Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree.

Change Wars presents the insights and expertise of some of the leading educational thinkers and authors from around the world on system-wide change.

Hopkins, David. 2007. Every school a great school: Realizing the potential of system leadership . Maidenhead, UK: Open Univ. Press.

Drawing on his experience in educational research and senior-level policy leadership, David Hopkins argues that in order to achieve systemic, sustainable improvement, it is important not only to continue to raise standards, but also to build capacity within the system through personalized learning, professionalized teaching, networking and innovation, and intelligent accountability.

Malone, Helen Janc. 2013. Leading educational change: Global issues, challenges, and lessons on whole system reform . New York: Teachers College Press.

The collection of essays found in this book is organized into five themes: emerging issues in educational change, improving practice, equity and educational justice, accountability and assessment systems, and whole-system change. Contributors to this volume of work address contemporary issues in research, policy, and practice to promote discussions, analysis, and innovations within education reform.

Oakes, Jeannie, Karen Quartz, Steve Ryan, and Martin Lipton. 2000. Becoming good American schools: The struggle for civic virtue in educational reform . San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

This book tells the stories of sixteen US schools that sought to alter their structures and practices and become places fostering innovative ideas, caring people, principles of social justice, and democratic processes. Based on longitudinal, comparative case-study research, these accounts attest to the difficulty of achieving these ends in the face of normative, political and technical barriers to educational equity in schools.

Stein, Mary Kay, Leah Hubbard, and Judith Toure. 2010. Travel of district-wide approaches to instructional improvement: How can districts learn from one another? In The second international handbook of educational change . Edited by Andy Hargreaves, Ann Lieberman, Michael Fullan, and David Hopkins, 781–805. Springer International Handbooks of Education 23. Berlin: Springer.

The chapter is the most recent of a sequence that examines how reform models and practices spread or failed to spread from New York City’s District #2 to San Diego and beyond. It analyzes the range of factors that are present in the common practice of trying to transpose models across systems.

This section encompasses historical perspectives on systemic educational reform. To read about how systemic changes have thus far proven unsuccessful, as well as suggestions for improvement, see Hargreaves and Shirley 2009 , Payne 2008 , Ravitch 2010 , Ravitch 2000 , and Sarason 1990 . To read about how certain reforms have come to be permanent features of school, see Tyack and Tobin 1994 .

Hargreaves, Andy, and Dennis Shirley. 2009. The fourth way: The inspiring future for educational change . Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

This book draws on research of thirty years of educational change to describe three ways of change in public policy that have proved unsuccessful: change through innovation and support, markets and standards, and data-driven improvement. It then interprets the authors’ research on successful practice in different countries and systems to describe a fourth way of inspiration and responsibility.

Payne, Charles M. 2008. So much reform, so little change: The persistence of failure in urban schools . Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.

This book draws on experiences of educational research and community organizing to argue that most education policy discussions are disconnected from the daily realities of urban schools, especially those in poor and beleaguered neighborhoods. Payne’s book highlights the often dysfunctional organizational environments of urban schools and school systems that undermine reform efforts.

Ravitch, Diane. 2000. Left back: A century of failed school reforms . New York: Simon & Schuster.

In this history of education in the 20th century, Diane Ravitch describes the ongoing battle of ideas over educational reform and explains why school reform has so often failed. See especially pp. 405–452.

Ravitch, Diane. 2010. The death and life of the great American school system: How testing and choice are undermining education . New York: Basic Books.

In this book, historian and former Washington education leader Diane Ravitch reviews and revises her opinions on education reform over the years to critique contemporary reform efforts for being overly influenced and distorted by corporate interests, excessively hostile to the teaching profession, and fatally supportive of educational testing accountability practices that lower standards and inhibit innovation.

Sarason, Seymour B. 1990. The predictable failure of educational reform: Can we change course before it’s too late? San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Sarason argues that schools have been intractable to change and the attainment of goals set by reformers. The reason is that reformers do not engage with the interconnectedness of what occurs in schools or with power relations in schooling. As a result, each new wave of reform learns nothing from earlier efforts and comes up with recommendations that have failed in the past.

Tyack, David, and William Tobin. 1994. The grammar of schooling: Why is it so hard to change? American Educational Research Journal 31.3: 453–479.

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Why have the established institutional reforms of schooling been so stable, and why did most challenges fade or become marginalized? The authors explain how some reforms, like the graded school and the Carnegie unit, lasted to become part of the grammar of schooling whereas some that attacked the grammar of schooling did not.

International Perspectives

This section provides international perspectives on systemic education reform, drawing largely from research in the United Kingdom and Canada since 1980. To further understand the challenges to education systems posed by increased globalization, see Arnove, et al. 2012 . To read about large-scale reform in the United Kingdom, see Barber 2009 ; Chapman and Gunter 2009 ; Earl, et al. 2003 ; and Gray 2010 . To read about Canadian systemic educational reform, see Fullan 2004 . For an inclusive educational perspective, see Sahlberg 2006 . For large-scale change efforts, see Hopkins 2011 .

Arnove, Robert F., Carlos Alberto Torres, and Stephen Franz. 2012. Comparative education: The dialectic of the global and the local . Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.

Authors discuss the challenges to education systems posed by increased globalization. Provides readers with a greater understanding of the complex interaction between global and local entities in education reform, particularly comparative education.

Barber, Michael. 2009. From system effectiveness to system improvement: Reform paradigms and relationships. In Change wars . Edited by Andy Hargreaves and Michael Fullan, 71–96. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree.

This article, from Tony Blair’s former education advisor, sets out the benefits and drawbacks of three paradigms for large-scale public service: command and control, quasi-markets, and devolution and transparency.

Chapman, Christopher, and Helen Gunter, eds. 2009. Radical reforms: Perspectives on an era of educational change . London and New York: Routledge.

This collection of papers by distinguished British researchers reviews and critiques systemic educational reform in England, and its different components, over the course of the Labour government in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Earl, Lorna M., Nancy Watson, Benjamin Levin, Kenneth Leithwood, and Michael Fullan. 2003. Watching and learning 3: The final report of the OISE/UT external evaluation of the National Literacy and Numeracy Strategies . London: Department for Education and Employment.

This is the officially commissioned evaluation of the United Kingdom’s influential National Literacy and Numeracy Strategy, which was implemented in system-wide scope and detail across all of England’s primary schools.

Fullan, Michael. 2004. Leadership and sustainability: System thinkers in action . Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Fullan’s book draws on his experiences of advising on large-scale systemic change in Ontario, as well as on reviewing the wider change literature to argue that effective systemic change grasps the interconnectedness of systems and takes moral responsibility for moving them in a positive direction.

Gray, John. 2010. Probing the limits of systemic reform: The English case. In The second international handbook of educational change . Edited by Andy Hargreaves, Ann Lieberman, Michael Fullan, and David Hopkins, 293–307. Springer International Handbooks of Education 23. Berlin: Springer.

Gray undertakes a sober research-based review of the impact of the much-lauded systemic reform strategies in England, especially under its Labour government.

Hopkins, David. 2011. Powerful learning: Taking education reform to scale . Melbourne, Australia: Department of Education and Early Childhood Development.

Hopkins explores school reform at scale through the implementation of a system improvement model in Melbourne, Australia. Through his analysis he comments on the necessity to include both “bottom-up” and “top-down” approaches.

Sahlberg, Pasi. 2006. Education reform for raising economic competitiveness. Journal of Education Change 7.4: 259–287.

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This article argues that what schools are expected to do in order to promote economic competitiveness often contradicts commonly accepted global education reform thinking. The key features of education reform policies that are compatible with competitiveness are those that encourage flexibility in education systems, creativity in schools, and risk-taking without fear on the part of individuals.

Struggling schools face difficult choices when making decisions about school improvement. This section identifies several school improvement options, including turnaround. To read about turnaround leadership, see Fullan 2006 . To read about improving schools in challenging circumstances, see Harris, et al. 2006 . To challenge current thinking on leadership, see Harris, et al. 2003 . For perspectives on school improvement, see Hopkins 2001 . To read about the link between knowledge utilization and school improvement, see Louis 1998 . For views on the link between school effectiveness and school improvement see Reynolds, et al. 2000 ; Stoll and Fink 1996 ; and Townsend 2007 . To read a critique of turnaround strategies, see Mintrop 2004 .

Fullan, Michael. 2006. Turnaround leadership . San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Foundational change theorist Michael Fullan critiques conventional literature and strategy regarding school turnaround for putting short-term gains ahead of sustainable improvement. Instead, he advocates effective leadership at all levels to combine pressure and support in bringing about effective and lasting change.

Harris, Alma, Christopher Day, David Hopkins, Mark Hadfield, Andy Hargreaves, and Christopher Chapman. 2003. Effective school leadership for school improvement . New York: RoutledgeFalmer.

Presents leadership of the many as an alternative to conventional theories of leadership from a single individual. The authors consider contemporary theories and issues within four areas of concern: the changing context of leadership, contemporary views of leadership, building leadership capacity, and future directions and implications for leadership and school improvement. Readers are provided with ideas and perspectives on alternative forms of leadership in an effort to promote sustained school improvement.

Harris, Alma, Sue James, Judith Gunraj, Paul Clarke, and Belinda Harris. 2006. Improving schools in exceptionally challenging circumstances . London: Continuum.

This research-based investigation of schools working in exceptionally challenging circumstances sets out the issues facing such schools and the success that some can achieve despite significant odds.

Hopkins, David. 2001. School improvement for real . London: RoutledgeFalmer.

DOI: 10.4324/9780203165799 Save Citation » Export Citation » Share Citation »

Leading school improvement expert David Hopkins reviews the key issues in school improvement in this book, which makes a particularly original contribution to how to differentiate improvement strategies depending on the kind of school and context in which improvement or turnaround efforts are located

Louis, Karen Seashore. 1998. Reconnecting knowledge utilization and school improvement: Two steps forward, one step back. In The international handbook of educational change . Part 2. Edited by Andy Hargreaves, Ann Lieberman, Michael Fullan, and David Hopkins, 1074–1096. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic.

In this paper, Karen Seashore Louis “reconnects” knowledge utilization with school improvement and develops the relationship further. She reviews the current state of the art in knowledge utilization theory, and discusses how it is connected both to school effectiveness and improvement research.

Mintrop, Heinrich. 2004. Schools on probation . New York: Teachers College Press.

In a trenchant critique of school turnaround strategies, Mintrop notes that short-term gains are secured at the expense of long-term sustainability, with the result that teachers in schools on probation are faced with either raising test scores immediately by almost any means, or exiting the schools concerned.

Reynolds, David, Charles Teddlie, David Hopkins, and Sam Stringfield. 2000. Linking school effectiveness and school improvement. In The international handbook of school effectiveness research . Edited by David Reynolds and Charles Teddlie, 206–231. Lewes, UK: Falmer.

These four scholars in the fields of school effectiveness and improvement argue that research on school effectiveness and improvement has been separated owing to differences of methodology and perspective—in ways that have not benefited positive change efforts over time. The authors go on to propose an integration of these fields, with examples of where such integrations have been achieved.

Stoll, Louise, and Dean Fink. 1996. Changing our schools: Linking school effectiveness and school improvement . Buckingham, UK: Open Univ. Press.

This book advises people inside and outside schools on how to bring about positive change. The authors provide both a theoretical critique and practical advice to assist all those committed to changing and improving schools. The book makes an especially original contribution to distinguishing the different improvement and turnaround strategies that are needed in cruising, moving, struggling, and sinking schools.

Townsend, Tony, ed. 2007. International handbook of school effectiveness and improvement . Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer.

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This fifty-one-chapter handbook provides a state-of-the-art collection by both advocates and critics of school effectiveness and school improvement, and also of their interrelationship, from many different parts of the world.

Organizations can learn and improve by reflecting on their own practices, sharing ideas with individuals both inside and outside the organization through inquiry and networking, and building capacity by learning from within. To read about networking for educational change, see Chapman and Hadfield 2010 , Daly 2010 , and Lieberman and Wood 2002 . For perspectives on inquiry, see Cochran-Smith and Lytle 1992 . For perspectives on capacity building, see Elmore 2004 and Hatch 2009 . To read about how organizations learn and improve, see Mulford 1998 and Supovitz 2010 .

Chapman, Christopher, and Mark Hadfield. 2010. School–based networking for educational change. In The second international handbook of educational change . Edited by Andy Hargreaves, Ann Lieberman, Michael Fullan, and David Hopkins, 765–780. Springer International Handbooks of Education 23. Berlin: Springer.

This article, by two of the leading theorists and researchers on school-to-school networks, analyzes how networks can enhance educational change, but also what distinguishes effective from less effective networks.

Cochran-Smith, Marilyn, and Susan L. Lytle. 1992. Inside/outside: Teacher research and Knowledge . New York: Teachers College Press.

Cochran-Smith and Lytle argue that teacher research can transform, not simply add to, the present knowledge base in the field, linking research with practice and inquiry with reform. Inquiry, in this sense, is presented as a form of intended change, and is exemplified in the voices of teacher researchers within the book.

Daly, Alan J. 2010. Social network theory and educational change . Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.

This book explores how social networks in schools can impede or facilitate the work of education reform. It comprises a series of studies examining networks among teachers and school leaders and shows that the success or failure of education reform is not solely the result of technical plans and blueprints, but of the relational ties that support or constrain the pace, depth, and direction of change.

Elmore, Richard F. 2004. School reform from the inside out: Policy, practice and performance . Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.

In this book, Elmore makes the case that external accountability schemes cannot succeed in the absence of internal accountability, defined as the capacity for individual and collective responsibility for improving practice

Hatch, Thomas. 2009. Managing to change: How schools can survive (and sometimes thrive) in turbulent times . New York: Teachers College Press.

In contrast to a world of external reform that often undermines positive change efforts within schools, this book argues that schools can and should build their own capacity for change. Hatch makes two original contributions to the capacity debate: that it takes capacity to build capacity, and that increased capacity means reducing excessive demand as well as increasing supply.

Lieberman, Ann, and Diane Wood. 2002. From network learning to classroom teaching. Journal of Educational Change 3.3–4: 315–337.

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This two-year study of the National Writing Project examined what teachers learned from their involvement in various local network activities. Network activities helped teachers gain a set of principles and ways of working that they took back to their classrooms and gave teachers opportunities to lead professional development, explore special interest groups, and become members of a powerful learning community.

Mulford, William. 1998. Organizational learning and educational change. In The international handbook of educational change . Part 1. Edited by Andy Hargreaves, Ann Lieberman, Michael Fullan, and David Hopkins, 616–641. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic.

This chapter reviews state-of-the-art thinking on organizational learning and its contribution to educational change, and assesses its strengths and limitations.

Supovitz, Jonathan. 2010. Knowledge-based organizational learning for instructional Improvement. In The second international handbook of educational change . Edited by Andy Hargreaves, Ann Lieberman, Michael Fullan, and David Hopkins, 707–723. Springer International Handbooks of Education 23. Berlin: Springer.

This article draws on business literature to argue that system leaders, and especially district leaders in education, can improve effectiveness by accessing the knowledge that is diffused throughout and inexplicit within their organizations, so it is made explicit, accessibly stored, and easily diffused and developed among practitioners and leaders.

The works in this section represent multiple perspectives on educational change agents—those who initiate, implement, experience, and respond to educational changes. Included are articles, chapters, and books related to such topics as defining change agents and the skills associated with change agency; the impact of governments, communities, and schools on educational change and the role that each of these bodies has in educational change; and the impact of change on teachers and teachers’ agency in the context of reform. From these pivotal pieces, it is clear that the change both originates and is also felt deeply at all levels, from the macro level of nations down to the micro level of individual schools. It is also clear that the perspective of change agents themselves as they navigate the turbulent waters of complex and often contradictory educational changes must be taken into consideration, both by the communities in which these agents act and at the policy level, where decisions about these agents are typically determined.

This section describes the effects of change on teachers, as well as the skills educators need to become change agents. For an elucidation of the professionalism hypothesis, see Darling-Hammond 2009 . To read about the effects of change on teachers’ morale, job satisfaction, and motivation, see Evans 2000 . To read about the human meaning of change for educators, see Evans 1996 . For a view of the impact of change on teachers’ work in the postmodern age, see Hargreaves 1994 . For an examination of the relationship between professionals inside school and agents outside it, see Hargreaves and Fullan 1998 . Finally, to better understand the skills educational change agents need, see Miles, et al. 1988 .

Darling-Hammond, Linda. 2009. Teaching and the change wars: The professionalism hypothesis. In Change wars . Edited by Andy Hargreaves and Michael Fullan, 45–69. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree.

Darling-Hammond argues against market-based and bureaucratically driven approaches to change in favor of a more democratic and professional approach that is essential for the types of goals that now confront education systems. She provides recommendations for pursuing a vision that empowers learners with deep knowledge, problem-solving skills, and the ability to guide their own learning.

Evans, Robert. 1996. The human side of school change: Reform, resistance, and the real-life problems of innovation . San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Evans examines educational change from the perspective of its human meaning for educators who feel burdened and conflicted by the change process. He provides a new model of leadership and practical management strategies for building a framework of cooperation that includes educators more effectively in the change process.

Evans, Linda. 2000. The effects of educational change on morale, job satisfaction and motivation. Journal of Educational Change 1.2: 173–192.

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This article discusses job satisfaction, morale, and motivation among teachers in the compulsory schooling and higher education sectors in the United Kingdom. The author examines the ways in which individuals respond differently to the impact of change on their working lives depending on their prior experience of change in their work, against which current changes are compared as losses or otherwise.

Hargreaves, Andy. 1994. Changing teachers, changing times: Teachers’ work and culture in the postmodern age . New York: Teachers College Press.

Drawing on research with teachers at all levels, Hargreaves describes the impact of educational change on teachers’ work in the postmodern age in terms of their experiences of time, intensification, and guilt. He depicts key cultures of teaching, including individualism, balkanization, collaboration, and contrived collegiality, and he proposes how structures and cultures of teaching need to change.

Hargreaves, Andy, and Michael Fullan. 1998. What’s worth fighting for out there? New York: Teachers College Press.

This book examines the relationship between professionals within the school and other agents outside it in order to understand their coordinated impact on educational change efforts. The book argues that if educators are going to bring about significant improvements in teaching and learning within schools, they must forge strong, open, and interactive connections with communities beyond them.

Miles, Matthew, Ellen Rogers Saxl, and Ann Lieberman. 1988. What skills do educational “change agents” need? An empirical view. Curriculum Inquiry 18.2: 157–193.

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Though “change agents” are widely used to help with current school improvement programs, little was known empirically about the skills they need to function effectively, at the time this article was written. This classic article on change agentry reported findings from a study of seventeen change agents. A synthesis of findings resulted in a list of eighteen key skills, including six general and twelve specific skills.

National governments are among the most common agents, with great power not only to initiate but also to mediate change across the system. For an examination of what high-performing national school systems have in common, see Barber and Mourshed 2007 . For a look at Singapore’s school-based curriculum development, see Gopinathan and Deng 2006 . To better understand how school systems are improved around the world, see Mourshed, et al. 2010 . To understand Finland’s educational change experience, see Sahlberg 2010 . For international comparisons of student learning outcomes, see Schleicher 2010 . To view the state of curriculum research in a global context, see Pinar 2013 . To examine the problems of the American educational system in the context of the demands of the global knowledge economy, see Wagner 2008 . Finally, to see China as a case study of systemic educational reform, see Zhao and Qiu 2010 .

Barber, Michael, and Mona Mourshed. 2007. How the world’s best-performing school systems come out on top . London: McKinsey.

This study examined what high-performing school systems have in common. They suggest what matters most is (1) getting the right people to become teachers, (2) developing them into effective instructors, and (3) ensuring that the system is able to deliver the best possible instruction for every child.

Gopinathan, Saravanan, and Zongyi Deng. 2006. Fostering school-based curriculum development in the context of new educational initiatives in Singapore. Planning and Changing 37.1–2: 93–110.

The article explores the meanings, challenges, and implications of school-based curriculum development (SBCD) within the context of new educational initiatives in the high-performing nation of Singapore. Challenges in adopting SBCD include inadequate time, expertise, finance, and a threatening school climate.

Mourshed, Mona, Chinezi Chijioke, and Michael Barber. 2010. How the world’s most improved school systems keep getting better . London: McKinsey.

This influential report by McKinsey reviews and draws lessons from improving school systems at various stages of development around the world, drawing conclusions about the intervention strategies that are appropriate for countries and systems at different points of development.

Pinar, William F. 2013. International handbook of curriculum research . 2d ed. New York: Routledge.

Pinar presents the state of curriculum research in a global context in this collection of thirty-four essays from twenty-eight countries. This book provides a comprehensive report of the school curriculum initiatives and developments occurring worldwide. Countries previously absent from the original publication are included in this second edition.

Sahlberg, Pasi. 2010. Educational change in Finland. In The second international handbook of educational change . Edited by Andy Hargreaves, Ann Lieberman, Michael Fullan, and David Hopkins, 323–348. Springer International Handbooks of Education 23. Berlin: Springer.

Sahlberg argues that Finland’s success on PISA tests of educational achievement is explained by contextual factors—especially sociocultural aspects and other public-sector policies—as well as by professional factors such as engaging highly qualified teachers in collective responsibility for local decision making. These factors serve a common social mission that fosters interdependency among education, other social sectors, and national economic development.

Schleicher, Andreas. 2010. International comparisons of student learning outcomes. In The second international handbook of educational change . Edited by Andy Hargreaves, Ann Lieberman, Michael Fullan, and David Hopkins, 485–504. Springer International Handbooks of Education 23. Berlin: Springer.

Comparative international assessments can extend and enrich the national picture by providing a larger context within which to interpret national performance. International assessments can also provide countries with information that allows them to identify areas of relative strengths and weaknesses, monitor the pace of progress of their education system, and stimulate aspirations by showing what is possible.

Wagner, Tony. 2008. The global achievement gap: Why even our best schools don’t teach the new survival skills our children need—and what we can do about it . New York: Basic Books.

This book examines the problems of the American educational system in the context of the demands of the global knowledge economy. It assesses school performance in terms of the skills future workers will need and introduces a new model for schools that will help teach students how to solve problems and communicate effectively.

Zhao, Yong, and Wei Qiu. 2010. China as a case study of systemic educational reform. In The second international handbook of educational change . Edited by Andy Hargreaves, Ann Lieberman, Michael Fullan, and David Hopkins, 349–361. Springer International Handbooks of Education 23. Berlin: Springer.

In this chapter, the authors review the major systemic educational reforms that China has undertaken since 1980 and analyze the reasons behind their different degrees of success. They focus on two major themes, decentralization and marketization, and identify and assess the driving forces of the reforms.

Parents and communities can act as agents of educational reform, spearheading efforts that reflect areas in need of improvement in light of community needs. For an examination of social movement organizing and equity-focused educational change, see Renee, et al. 2010 . On the role of community organizing in educational change, see Shirley 1997 . To look at educational change through the lens of alternate teacher education programs, see Skinner, et al. 2011 .

Renee, Michelle, Kevin Welner, and Jeannie Oakes. 2010. Social movement organizing and equity-focused educational change: Shifting the zone of mediation. In The second handbook of educational change . Edited by Andy Hargreaves, Ann Lieberman, Michael Fullan, and David Hopkins, 153–168. Springer International Handbooks of Education 23. Berlin: Springer.

This chapter is a foundational article on the role of social movements in educational change. It explains the zone of mediation between schools and other domains, the types of forces that shape it, and the potential role of social movement organizations as one of those forces. The authors identify three elements key to the future success of social movement organizations in shifting the zone to make schools more equitable.

Shirley, Dennis. 1997. Community organizing for urban school reform . Austin: Univ. of Texas Press.

Most efforts at reform treat schools as isolated institutions, disconnected from their communities and the political realities that surround them. Using case studies, this book is one of the first accounts of the role of community organizing in educational change, where politically empowered low-income communities are at the heart of genuine school improvement and civic renewal.

Skinner, Elizabeth A., Maria Teresa Garreton, and Brain D. Schultz. 2011. Grow your own teachers: Grassroots change for teacher education . Teaching for Social Justice. New York: Teachers College Press.

This book uses the rich narratives of students, community leaders, and educators to offer a compelling look at alternative teacher education programs. Authors illustrate the successful collaboration of community-based organizations and local colleges of education in preparing a community’s members to teach local students.

Schools are not only places where educational change occurs. Rather, schools themselves can act as change agents by creating, supporting, challenging, or sustaining reform. To see how schools create conditions for change in schools, see Barth 1991 , Duke 1995 , and Reeves 2009 . For a view of the relationship between internally developed and externally imposed change, see Goodson 2002 . To see how schools work as professional learning communities to prepare students for a world of creativity and flexibility, see Hargreaves 2003 . For a look at how schools have amplified educational conservatism while altering its nature to fit the current culture and political economy of fast capitalism, see Hargreaves and Shirley 2009 . To see workplace conditions of school success, see Little 1982 . For an analysis of the organizational and political pressures facing non-traditional schools, such as magnet schools, see Metz 1986 .

Barth, Roland S. 1991. Improving schools from within . San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Barth sets out principles and practices for change that are driven by teachers, principals, and schools themselves.

Duke, D. L. 1995. The school that refused to die . Albany: State Univ. of New York Press.

Duke describes the history of a high school and relates it to the larger picture of what is happening in urban education. A culture of academic excellence that had been painstakingly crafted during the school’s first thirty years was affected by court-ordered busing, student unrest, White flight, district-sponsored alternative schools, high school consolidation, budget crises, closure threats, magnet programs, and coexistence with a Governor’s School.

Goodson, Ivor F. 2002. Social histories of educational change. Journal of Educational Change 2.1: 45–63.

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Goodson examines the relationship between internally developed and externally imposed change, arguing that internal change is increasingly being preempted by external agendas and demands. The conclusion sets out a reintegration of internal and external change elements.

Hargreaves, Andy. 2003. Teaching in the knowledge society: Education in the age of insecurity . New York: Teachers College Press.

This book defines teaching in the new knowledge society as preparing students for a world of creativity and flexibility. Hargreaves provides examples of schools that operate as learning communities and sets out detailed evidence on how years of “soulless standardization” have driven nonaffluent schools in the opposite direction.

Hargreaves, Andy, and Dennis Shirley. 2009. The persistence of presentism. Teachers College Record 111.11: 2505–2534.

This study draws on Dan Lortie’s classic discussion of the role of presentism, individualism and conservatism in teaching and teacher change. The research identifies three kinds of presentism—endemic, adaptive, and addictive—that have amplified educational conservatism while altering its nature to fit the current culture and political economy of fast capitalism.

Little, Judith Warren. 1982. Norms of collegiality and experimentation: Workplace conditions of school success. American Educational Research Journal 19.3: 325–340.

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This article is one of the first discussions of the role of collegiality in school change. A focused ethnography of the school as a workplace, it examines organizational characteristics conducive to continued “learning on the job.” More successful schools, particularly those receptive to staff development, were differentiated from less successful (and less receptive) schools by patterned norms of interaction among staff.

Metz, Mary Haywood. 1986. Different by design: The context and character of three magnet schools . Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

This ethnographic study analyzes the organizational and political pressures that combined to make three magnet schools distinctive social environments—a rare glimpse of the critical processes with which teachers and students in both “regular” schools and schools of choice must struggle.

Reeves, Douglas B. 2009. Leading change in your school: How to conquer myths, build commitment, and get results . Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Drawing on his own experience and educational research, Reeves outlines with clear examples how leaders can achieve impressive results in their schools and their districts through a range of change strategies in four stages or processes: creating conditions, planning, implementing, and sustaining.

The impact of educational reform on teachers’ agency is varied. Reform can act as a powerful force on teachers, changing their practice in deep and meaningful ways. It can also have more negative effects, including isolation, attrition, marginalization, and de-professionalism. For an exploration of new teachers’ resistance to change, see Achinstein and Ogawa 2006 . To see the impact of mandated change on teachers, see Bailey 2000 . For an exploration of how teachers’ career stages, life factors, commitment, and professional working environments affect their efficacy, see Day, et al. 2007 . For teacher development viewed through innovative school efforts, see Fullan and Hargreaves 1992 . On the realities of change for reform-minded teachers, see Hargreaves, et al. 2001 . For an exploration of teachers’ emotional responses to change, see Hargreaves 2004 . For the impact of life, career, and generation on teachers’ emotional responses to educational change, see Hargreaves 2005 . For an exploration of the constraints and possibilities of educational practice in light of contemporary realities, see Lieberman and Miller 1999 . For an examination of conflict in teacher communities as a catalyst for school change, see Avila de Lima 2001 . To better understand autonomy and initiative in teachers’ professional relations, see Little 1990 . To further understand identity, diversity, and educational change, see Skerrett 2011 .

Achinstein, Betty, and Rodney T. Ogawa. 2006. (In)Fidelity: What the resistance of new teachers reveals about professional principles and prescriptive educational policies. Harvard Educational Review 76.1: 30–63.

DOI: 10.17763/haer.76.1.e14543458r811864 Save Citation » Export Citation » Share Citation »

In this article, Achinstein and Ogawa explain teachers’ resistance to change as informed by professional principles. The authors describe the negative effects of prescriptive and control-oriented educational reforms on teachers, including professional isolation and attrition.

Avila de Lima, Jorge. 2001. Forgetting about friendship: Using conflict in teacher communities as a catalyst for school change. Journal of Educational Change 2.2.

It is widely recognized that teacher communities figure among the most vital factors for promoting educational change within schools. Avila discusses the role of friendship and conflict in teacher communities and argues for a rethinking of the way the intermingling of professional and interpersonal ties in schools contributes to change.

Bailey, Beverley. 2000. The impact of mandated change on teachers. In The sharp edge of educational change: Teaching, leading and the realities of reform . Edited by Nina Bascia and Andy Hargreaves, 112–129. London: RoutledgeFalmer.

This chapter reports on teachers’ experiences of mandated change. Teachers reported feeling marginalized and deprofessionalized by the mandated change process. Bailey argues that such marginalization contributes to the failure of school restructuring initiatives, as they pay scant attention to the working lives of teachers.

Day, Christopher, Pam Sammons, Gordon Stobart, Alison Kington, and Qing Gu. 2007. Teachers matter: Connecting lives, work and effectiveness . Maidenhead, UK: McGraw-Hill.

In this intensive landmark study of three hundred teachers in one hundred schools, Day and his colleagues make a major contribution to documenting how, over time, teachers’ career stages, life factors, forms of commitment, and professional working environments affect their efficacy, their schools’ capacity to improve, and student achievement.

Fullan, Michael, and Andy Hargreaves. 1992. Teacher development and educational change . New York: RoutledgeFalmer.

This book explores teacher development through innovation-focused efforts and a total-teacher/total-school analysis. Authors maintain that educational transformation must include teacher development.

Hargreaves, Andy. 2004. Inclusive and exclusive educational change: Emotional responses of teachers and implications for leadership. School Leadership and Management 24.3: 287–309.

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This article analyzes teachers’ emotional responses to educational change. More important for the experience and management of change is not whether change is external or internal in its source, but whether it is inclusive or exclusive of teachers in its design and conduct. Implications are drawn for educational leadership.

Hargreaves, Andy. 2005. Educational change takes ages: Life, career and generational factors in teachers’ emotional responses to educational change. Teaching and Teacher Education 21:967–983.

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This paper examines evidence on the relationship of the emotions of teaching to teachers’ age and career stages, based on experiences of educational change. Hargreaves analyzes how teachers respond emotionally to educational change at different ages and stages of career, and also how they attribute age and career-based responses to their colleagues.

Hargreaves, Andy, Lorna Earl, Shawn Moore, and Susan Manning. 2001. Learning to change: Teaching beyond subjects and standards . San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

The success of school reform measures greatly depends on the support and commitment of teachers. This book examines the realities of educational change from the frontline perspective of reform-minded teachers. It charts the perceptions and experiences of twenty-nine teachers in grades 7 and 8 from four school districts, showing how they grappled with such initiatives as integrated curriculum, common learning standards, and alternative assessments.

Lieberman, Ann, and Lynn Miller. 1999. Teachers: Transforming their world and their work . New York: Teachers College Press.

Lieberman and Miller address the contemporary realities of schools and teaching, focusing on both the constraints and the possibilities embedded in practice. The words and experiences of teachers and principals are used to show what growth and change look like from the inside—the teacher’s perspective.

Little, Judith Warren. 1990. The persistence of privacy: Autonomy and initiative in teachers’ professional relations. Teachers College Record 91.4: 509–536.

This widely cited paper discusses autonomy and initiative in teachers’ professional relations, and both articulates and investigates a continuum of collaborative relations in teachers’ practice.

Skerrett, Allison. 2011. On identity, diversity, and educational change. Journal of Educational Change 12.2: 211–220.

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Skerrett discusses those areas most influential to Hargreaves’s work on educational change: teacher identity and biography and educational change between 1960 and 1990. Skerrett explains how she integrates teacher identity in her courses and relates periods of optimism and innovation, complexity and contradiction, and marketization and standardization to policies and practice regarding student diversity.

The effects of change can be felt differently for teachers working at the primary and secondary levels. At the primary level, where teachers are not always subject-specific and where departmental cultures are not pervasive, primary teachers struggle with change in ways unique to their environment. For the challenges facing adolescents related to school reform, see Earl, et al. 1996 . For a description of how primary teachers see themselves and their work, see Nias 1989 . For an examination of primary teachers’ responses to change, see Woods, et al. 1997 .

Earl, Lorna, Andy Hargreaves, and Jim. Ryan. 1996. Schooling for change: Reinventing education for early adolescents . London: Routledge.

Drawing from years of conversations with educators, this book presents educational change and reform with practicality and relevance to teachers and administrators. Authors focus on the challenges facing adolescents in transition and how school reform can take into account their unique experiences.

Nias, Jennifer. 1989. Primary teachers talking . London: Routledge.

Drawing on a sample of British primary school teachers, Nias discusses how primary teachers see themselves and their work. She examines the subjective experience of “being a primary teacher,” the different kinds of commitment that these teachers hold, the main factors that contribute to job satisfaction and dissatisfaction, and teachers’ relationships with their colleagues.

Woods, Peter, Bob Jeffrey, Geoff Troman, and Mari Boyle. 1997. Restructuring schools, reconstructing teachers: Responding to change in the primary school . Bristol, UK: Open Univ. Press.

This study explores how UK policy changes affected primary school teachers and their work in the 1990s. The study’s major contribution is in documenting the different strategies of adaptation that teachers take toward external policy requirements and the reforms that follow from them. The authors argue that teachers’ own active involvement in policy change is required if their creative potential is to be realized.

Change is often difficult at the secondary level, where size, bureaucratic complexity, subject traditions, and identifications factor into relationships and decision making. For an understanding of change at the secondary level in the United States and Canada over a thirty-year period, see Goodson, et al. 2006 . To better understand the professional life cycle of teachers, see Huberman 1989 . To examine the career trajectories of secondary teachers who have experienced reform, see Little 1996 . For a look at teachers’ responses to change in a comprehensive school setting in the United Kingdom, see Riseborough 1981 .

Goodson, Ivor, Shawn Moore, and Andy Hargreaves. 2006. Teacher nostalgia and the sustainability of reform: The generation and degeneration of teachers’ missions, memory and meaning. Educational Administration Quarterly 42.1: 42–61.

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Drawing on the findings of a longitudinal study of educational change over time in eight US and Canadian secondary schools, the authors describe the change orientations of teachers in mid to late career depending on their generationally based sense of mission and their experiences of nostalgia for forms of teaching that sustained them in earlier careers.

Huberman, Michael. 1989. The professional life cycle of teachers. Teachers College Record 91.1: 31–57.

This article discusses trends in the literature related to phases or stages in the professional life of teachers and their impact on teachers’ orientations to development and change. It then presents the results of a study involving 160 secondary teachers in Switzerland. Findings suggest that four modal sequences are applicable to the professional life cycle of teachers.

Little, Judith Warren. 1996. The emotional contours and career trajectories of (disappointed) reform enthusiasts. Cambridge Journal of Education 26:345–359.

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Little examines the interplay of heightened emotionality and shifting career contours among secondary teachers engaged in reform movements; the nature and extent of reform-related conflict within work groups; the degree of equilibrium among multiple sources of pressure and support; and the capacity to manage the pace, scale and dynamics of reform.

Riseborough, George F. 1981. Teachers’ careers and comprehensive schooling: An empirical study. Sociology 15:325–381.

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This early ethnography of teachers’ careers and educational change in a reorganized comprehensive school explains the role of deviancy amplification among a group of mid-career teachers marginalized by a major organizational change, especially in relation to interactions with the school’s head teacher.

This section explores the different domains of activity and organization in which educational change occurs. Through the domains covered here, substantive evolutions of educational change over time are evident, in particular the impact of heightened accountability and standardization.

This section details curriculum and teaching, as well as learning, standards, and accountability, as important domains in which educational change occurs. To see the role of the system in supporting data-driven decision making, see Datnow and Park 2010 . For an exploration of the impact of state testing on inquiry-based science, refer to Falk and Drayton 2004 . To better understand the historical development and evolution of school subjects, see Goodson 1993 . To explore the concept of curriculum and the practice of curriculum theory, see Goodson 1997 . For perspectives on the impact of standardized testing, see McNeil 2000 . For an analysis of the current state of America’s school system, see Ravitch 2011 .

Datnow, Amanda, and Vicki Park. 2010. Large-scale reform in the era of accountability: The system role in supporting data-driven decision making. In The second international handbook of educational change . Edited by Andy Hargreaves, Ann Lieberman, Michael Fullan, and David Hopkins, 209–220. Springer International Handbooks of Education 23. Berlin: Springer.

This chapter opens the “black box” of large-scale educational change, specifically focusing on a reform movement that results from the current era of accountability: data-driven decision making. The focus is on the system or school district level, where large-scale efforts to engage educators in the use of data often are initiated.

Falk, Joni K., and Brian Drayton. 2004. State testing and inquiry-based science: Are they complementary or competing reforms? Journal of Educational Change 5.4: 345–387.

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The effect of district strategies for improving high-stakes test scores on science teachers’ practice is explored. Results suggest that districts chose markedly different strategies for raising test scores, and that the approaches taken by districts influenced the nature of pedagogical and curriculum changes.

Goodson, Ivor F. 1993. School subjects and curriculum change: Studies in curriculum history . 3d ed. London: Taylor & Francis.

Goodson investigates the historical development and evolution of school subjects, highlighting the ways in which subjects as we understand them are a result of competing forms of status and power in the development of “worthwhile” knowledge.

Goodson, Ivor F. 1997. The changing curriculum . New York: Peter Lang.

Goodson reviews the emergence of the concept of curriculum and the practice of curriculum theory. In doing so, he develops a contextual understanding of curriculum that is the product of change.

McNeil, Linda M. 2000. Contradictions of school reform: The educational costs of standardized testing . New York: RoutledgeFalmer.

This book examines the reality, for students as well as teachers, of standardized testing. It argues that the preparation of students for standardized tests engenders teaching methods that compromise the quality of education.

Ravitch, Diane. 2011. The death and life of the great American school system: How testing and choice are undermining education . New York: Basic Books.

This book is an analysis of the current state of America’s education system. Ravitch critiques popular contemporary reforms including standardized testing, punitive accountability, and privatization using examples from America’s major cities.

This section explores the different domains of activity and organization in which educational change occurs, focusing on the role and impact of school organization in educational change. In each domain, scholars have looked at school organization and culture to consider their role in promoting, supporting, resisting, achieving, and sustaining meaningful change. For an exploration of the micro-politics of school, see Ball 1987 . To better understand politics, markets, and the organization of schools, see Chubb and Moe 1988 . For a description of the evolution of innovation strategies and a look at which strategies will most effectively develop the 21st-century school, see Dalin 1998 . For a detailed description of whole-school reform focused on the collaboration of educators and politicians, see Fullan 2010 . For an exploration of the role of departmental cultures in reform, see McLaughlin and Talbert 2001 . To look at the impact of reforms on individuals, classrooms, and schools, and in particular the Coalition of Essential Schools, see McQuillan and Muncey 1996 . For an analysis of social, economic, and educational trends worldwide, see Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development 1991 . To look at the challenges facing the modern American high school, see Powell, et al. 1985 . For an analysis of the way contemporary schools run and the impact of these practices on student learning, see Sizer 1984 .

Ball, Stephen J. 1987. The micro-politics of the school: Towards a theory of school organization . London: Methuen.

In this book, Ball explores the interests and concerns of teachers and current problems through the concept of micropolitics in schools. He challenges educators to consider the existing forms of organizational control in schools and whether these forms are adequate or appropriate.

Chubb, John E., and Terry M. Moe. 1988. Politics, markets, and the organization of schools. American Political Science Review 82.4: 1065–1087.

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This analysis found that public and private schools differ in environment and organization, with private schools more likely to possess characteristics believed to produce effectiveness. The key differences lie in social control: public schools are subordinates in a hierarchic system, whereas private schools are autonomous actors “controlled” by the market.

Dalin, Per. 1998. Developing the twenty-first century school: A challenge to reformers. In The international handbook of educational change . Part 2. Edited by Andy Hargreaves, Michael Fullan, Ann Lieberman, and David Hopkins, 1059–1073. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic.

Dalin reviews three decades of research on and involvement in educational innovation. He traces the evolution of innovation strategies and describes the range of challenges currently facing educational reformers. Dalin outlines strategies that will assist educational reformers to more effectively develop the 21st-century school.

Fullan, Michael. 2010. All systems go: The change imperative for whole system reform . Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Fullan examines whole-system reform at the school, district, and state levels. With relevance to educators and change agents at all levels of schooling, he discusses the need for politicians and professionals in the field to collaborate and share decision making and create policy together.

McLaughlin, Milbrey Wallin, and Joan E. Talbert. 2001. Professional communities and the work of high school teaching . Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.

McLaughlin and Talbert argue that it is not the state or district but the most local contexts—schools, departments, and communities—that matter most to teachers’ performance and professional satisfaction. Their findings show that departmental cultures play a crucial role in classroom settings and expectations.

Muncey, Donna E., and Patrick J. McQuillan. 1996. Reform and resistance in schools and classrooms: An ethnographic view of the Coalition of Essential Schools . New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press.

This book charts the course of reform at eight charter-member schools of the Coalition of Essential Schools. Muncey and McQuillan’s study is the culmination of five years of ethnographic research on the impact of reforms on individuals, classrooms, and the schools themselves.

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. 1991. What schools for the future? Paris: OECD.

Drawing on an extensive body of statistical and research evidence, the book analyzes the social, economic, and educational trends of the 21st century. It presents six possible scenarios for school systems over the next ten to twenty years. The analysis is completed by contributions from eight international experts, looking at the challenges facing schools.

Powell, Arthur G., Eleanor Farrar, and David K. Cohen. 1985. The shopping mall high school: Winners and losers in the educational marketplace . Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

This book suggests the modern high school is like a shopping mall, offering immense variety but virtually no direction. Consequently, all too many students simply “hang out” in school. This situation continues because of teachers’ overwork and apathy, administrative concern with enrollment figures, and the societal attitude that high school is merely a rite of passage to adulthood.

Sizer, Theodore R. 1984. Horace’s compromise . Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

In this book, Sizer reveals the all too familiar workings of schools: the often ineffective teaching practices, the rushed procession of fifty-two-minute classes, and the mindless, brief tests that do little to enhance students’ understanding. Sizer insists that we do more than compromise for our children’s educational futures.

Demographics

One of the greatest factors influencing educational change is the demographics of the people who populate the region served. This section explores the role of these demographic factors in educational change. Included are the need to consider race, class, language, and gender in reform and how to create more equitable teaching and learning for urban schools and underserved populations through inclusive education practices.

This section considers the role of race, class, and language in educational change. For an insightful theory of change through the lens of race, see Connolly and Troyna 1998 . To further understand the culture of power and pedagogy in teaching Black and poor students, see Delpit 1988 and Fordham 1996 . For a look at how language and culture influence student learning, see Fecho 2003 and Philips 1983 . For suggestions on policy reform and teacher preparation in diverse international settings, see Skerret 2008 and Skerret and Hargreaves 2008 .

Connolly, Paul, and Barry Troyna. 1998. Researching racism in education: Politics, theory and practice . Bristol, UK: Open Univ. Press.

A key chapter in this book argues that literature on race has no theory of change and that literature on change has no theory of race or diversity, and Troyna sets out some ways to develop a theory of change that is based on more than guilt or persuasion.

Delpit, Lisa D. 1988. The silenced dialogue: Power and pedagogy in educating other people’s children. Harvard Education Review 58.3: 280–298.

DOI: 10.17763/haer.58.3.c43481778r528qw4 Save Citation » Export Citation » Share Citation »

Delpit discusses the “culture of power” in society and education in the United States. She provides five complex rules of power that influence the teaching and learning of black and poor students. She suggests that educators must gain an understanding of these power relationships in order to provide more equitable schools.

Fecho, Bob. 2003. Is this English? Race, language, and culture in the classroom . New York: Teachers College Press.

This book describes how a white high school English teacher and his students of color used “critical inquiry” in the classroom. This method allowed the students and teacher to take intellectual and social risks by crossing cultural boundaries, and over time, it empowered the students and transformed literacy education in their school.

Fordham, Signithia. 1996. Blacked out: Dilemmas of race, identity, and success at Capitol High . Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.

Fordham describes the symbolic role of academic achievement within the black community in an inner-city high school. This ethnography details the struggles of students to construct their identities in the midst of cultural conflicts between a community that encourages egalitarianism and group cohesion and a school that encourages individualism and competition for academic success.

Philips, Susan U. 1983. The invisible culture: Communication in classroom and community on the Warm Springs Indian reservation . Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland.

Philips offers insights for educators on the role of language and culture in educational settings by sharing the experiences of Warm Springs Native American children and their teachers in an American school. She explains that the organization of communication in the classroom places these children in a subordinate position both socially and culturally.

Skerrett, Allison. 2008. “Going the race way”: Biographical influences on multicultural and antiracist English curriculum practices. Teaching and Teacher Education 24.7: 1813–1826.

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This article considers the importance of teacher agency in relation to teaching to student diversity during a time of increased curriculum standardization. Drawing from an international study conducted in the United States and Canada, Skerrett explains how teacher agency in two racially diverse schools was directly related to professional preparation, prior experiences with diversity, and generational status.

Skerrett, Allison, and Andy Hargreaves. 2008. Student diversity and secondary school change in a context of increasingly standardized reform. American Educational Research Journal 45.4: 913–945.

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This article analyzes three decades of educational reform strategies pertaining to ethnocultural diversity in the United States and Canada and how they affect the efforts of four secondary schools, two in each context, to respond to increasing student diversity. The authors describe the current effects of increasing standardization on racially diverse schools and offer recommendations for policy reform that embraces post-standardization.

Reforms embracing a multicultural perspective help to create more equitable teaching and learning for all students. For practical suggestions and tools to provide inclusive and multicultural teaching, see Banks 2004 . For advice on policy development and teaching for empowerment in diverse linguistic and cultural contexts, see Cummins 1996 , Nieto 2005 , and Nieto 2010 . For ideas on community involvement in schools with diverse student populations, see Valdés 1996 . To further understand the importance of culturally responsive and socioculturally conscious teaching, see Valenzuela 1999 and Villegas and Lucas 2002 . To explore student-centered, critical, and democratic pedagogy, see Shor 2012 .

Banks, James A. 2004. Multicultural education: Historical developments, dimensions, and practice. In Handbook of research on multicultural education . 2d ed. Edited by James A. Banks and Cherry A. McGee Banks, 3–29. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

This book provides educators with knowledge and tools to become effective practitioners in an increasingly diverse society. Authors discuss the concepts of school culture and the influence of race, class, gender, religion, and exceptionality and how these influence teaching, learning, and student behavior. Suggestions are advanced for educational reform that embraces a multicultural perspective.

Cummins, Jim. 1996. Negotiating identities: Education for empowerment in a diverse society . Ontario: California Association for Bilingual Education.

Cummins explains that the current methods of teaching English language learners from diverse cultures and countries are not working. He suggests the need for teachers to create a learning environment for students that encourages them to learn from the diversity of cultures in the classroom, as opposed to pressuring for assimilation.

Nieto, Sonia. 2005. Cultural difference and educational change in a sociopolitical context. In Extending educational change . Edited by Andy Hargreaves, 138–159. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer.

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Nieto discusses the phenomenon of growing cultural diversity and the challenges it presents for educational change. She explains the benefits of student learning and achievement in reforms that take into account cultural and linguistic diversity and argues for pre-service teacher education that prepares teachers to work effectively in diverse contexts, as well as for policies that are sensitive to diversity issues.

Nieto, Sonia. 2010. The light in their eyes: Creating multicultural learning Communities . 2d ed. New York: Teachers College Press.

In this book, Sonia Nieto explains how student learning should be at the center of multicultural education. She describes multicultural education as a transformative process influenced by social context, culture, critical pedagogy, and educational equity.

Shor, Ira. 2012. Empowering education: Critical teaching for social change . Chicago, IL: Univ. of Chicago Press.

Shor explores empowering education as a function of student-centered, critical, and democratic pedagogy. The author argues that through interactive dialogue with teachers, students become proactive in their learning. This book provides strategies to assist students in developing critical thinking skills through an analysis of the obstacles in promoting empowering education.

Valdés, Guadalupe. 1996. Con respeto: Bridging the distances between culturally diverse families and schools . New York: Teachers College Press.

This book is an ethnographic portrait of ten Mexican immigrant families. It describes the challenges of survival and learning in a new country and uncovers common cultural misunderstandings in schools that may have long-term negative consequences on immigrant children. It provides information for educators on creating multicultural learning communities.

Valenzuela, Angela. 1999. Subtractive schooling: U.S.-Mexican youth and the politics of caring . Albany: State Univ. of New York Press.

Valenzuela examines how school is an uncaring place for many students. She describes two conceptions of school: one that embraces the different languages and cultures of students, and one that encourages mainstreaming into the dominant society without consideration of student differences.

Villegas, Ana María, and Tamara Lucas. 2002. Preparing culturally responsive teachers. Journal of Teacher Education 53.1: 20–32.

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In this article, Villegas and Lucas discuss the importance of culturally responsive teaching in teacher education programs. They demonstrate the need for programs to move beyond the current fragmented treatment of diversity and create a vision for socioculturally conscious teaching that affirms student differences and promotes equity.

There is a great need for equity-focused reforms and policies in many urban schools. This section highlights works that consider new paradigms for understanding social and educational injustice (see Anyon 2005 ) and suggestions for closing the achievement gap in urban schools (see Noguera 2003 ). For a history of class politics and public schooling in the United States, see Wrigley 1982 . For a grounded theory of critical literacy pedagogy, see Morrell 2008 . For suggestions on creating more equitable schools using social and political movements outside the field of education, see Oakes and Lipton 2002 . For a cultural ecological model of school change, see Ogbu 1974 . For a discussion on education reform and social change, see Walsh 1996 .

This book provides a new paradigm for understanding educational injustice and working toward equity in schools and communities. Anyon explains the many unintended consequences of policies and practices on poor communities. She describes five current social movements in the United States that are demonstrating success and offers suggestions for educators striving to obtain educational justice in struggling schools.

Morrell, Ernest. 2008. Critical literacy and urban youth: Pedagogies of access, dissent, and liberation . New York: Routledge.

In this book, Morrell presents a grounded theory of critical literacy pedagogy developed from his own work. The author offers implications for literary research, teacher education, classroom practices, and social and community change.

Noguera, Pedro A. 2003. City schools and the American dream: Reclaiming the promise of public education . New York: Teachers College Press.

In this book, Pedro Noguera considers how urban schools can reach the academic standards required by new state and national educational standards. He discusses the role of classroom teachers in helping to close the achievement gap and the need for substantial investment in communities to combat social forces such as poverty, violence, and social inequality.

Oakes, Jeannie, and Martin Lipton. 2002. Struggling for educational equity in diverse communities: School reforms as social movement. Journal of Educational Change 3:383–406.

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Oakes and Lipton present the need for equity-focused school reformers to learn from the logic and strategies of change efforts outside the field of education. The authors suggest using social and political movements as lenses for reform efforts because they may have more success challenging and disrupting the norms and prevailing power structures than do traditional organizational change models.

Ogbu, John. 1974. The next generation . New York: Academic Press.

Ogbu, in this foundational article, explains how his theories on minority education developed, including his cultural ecological model. Dialogue between Ogbu and the scholarly community frames the debate on academic achievement, school engagement, and oppositional culture.

Walsh, Catherine E. 1996. Education reform and social change: Multicultural voices, struggles, and visions . Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

This book uses case studies to emphasize multicultural, collaborative, grassroots approaches to education reform. Through firsthand documentation, Walsh gives voice to stakeholders, including students, and their efforts to implement equitable improvements to education. He encourages reflective thought regarding these issues and provides readers with guiding questions for thoughtful engagement.

Wrigley, Julia. 1982. Class politics and public schools: Chicago 1900–1950 . New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers Univ. Press.

In a classic in the field of sociology of education, Wrigley examines how social class struggles and long-term power structures defined educational development in the United States.

The works in this section consider the role of gender in educational change and reform. For a historical examination of women in educational administration, see Blackmore 1996 and Shakeshaft 1989 . For a discussion on the relationship of gender to micro-politics in secondary schools, see Datnow 2003 .

Blackmore, Jill. 1996. Doing “emotional labour” in the education market place: Stories from the field of women in management. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education 17(3): 337–349.

DOI: 10.1080/0159630960170304 Save Citation » Export Citation » Share Citation »

Blackmore discusses how the construction of an educational labor market has shaped educational practice. The author considers the difficulties female principals face when dealing with educational quasi-markets and the contradiction of caring and sharing leadership during a time of state-imposed educational reforms based upon market liberalism.

Datnow, Amanda. 2003. The gender politics of educational change . Bristol, PA: Taylor & Francis.

Datnow contrasts the efforts of two gender-based groups in their efforts to implement school improvements. She details how these improvements quickly became a political match between female-dominated and male-dominated groups. This book gives researchers and practitioners a new perspective from which to view a school’s culture and leadership dynamics.

Shakeshaft, Charol. 1989. Women in educational administration . Newbury Park, CA: SAGE.

This book was one of the first to focus on women in educational administration. This updated edition summarizes and analyzes the history of women in educational leadership and the status of women in the field compared to men. Social barriers and strategies for overcoming these barriers are suggested.

This works in this section consider the need for sustainable change and fostering inclusive values and practices in schools. For a broader definition of inclusion, including issues of equity, participation, and the role of community in sustaining equitable reform, see Ainscow, et al. 2006 . For the role of organizational cultures and leadership in developing inclusive educational practices, see Ainscow and Sandill 2010 .

Ainscow, Mel, Tony Booth, Alan Dyson, et al. 2006. Improving schools, developing inclusion . London: Routledge.

Much of the literature on inclusive practices in schools has been narrowly concerned with the inclusion of pupils with special educational needs. This book takes the view that marginalization, exclusion, and underachievement take many forms and affect many different kinds of children. As such, a definition of inclusion should also touch upon issues of equity, participation, community, entitlement, compassion, respect for diversity, and sustainability.

Ainscow, Mel, and Abha Sandill. 2010. Developing inclusive education systems: The role of organisational cultures and leadership. International Journal of Inclusive Education 14.4: 401–416.

DOI: 10.1080/13603110802504903 Save Citation » Export Citation » Share Citation »

Drawing on research evidence and ideas from a range of international literature, this paper argues that leadership practice is a crucial element in gearing education systems toward inclusive values and bringing about sustainable change. The paper considers the organizational conditions that are needed in order to bring about such developments, focusing in particular on the role of leadership in fostering inclusive cultures.

Theories of Change

This section includes key books, articles, and book chapters that discuss theories of educational change. Included are topics on non-change, stage development and institutional theories, concepts of personal, emotional, and psychodynamic reactions to change, and orientations to and responses to change. Pivotal historical works on change theories are also included.

The works in this section consider educational change from the perspective of growth, learning, and stage development. For details on how to use social network theory to enact and sustain educational change, see Daly 2010 . For an understanding of the five dimensions of schooling in implementing reform, see Eisner 1992 . For a look at how partnerships among educators, communities, and governments can create learning societies and sustain reform, see Fullan 1993 and Senge 2010 . To further understand large-scale transformation and complex change, see Fullan 2001 . For a synthesis of existing theoretical perspectives on educational change, see Paulson 1977 .

Daly, Alan J., ed. 2010. Social network theory and educational change . Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education.

Uses case study to explore the networks developed by teachers and school leaders. Daly contrasts informal and formal organizational structures and observes the flow of influence, ideas, and information between both individuals and groups. He emphasizes that school reform must be viewed from the relationships between stakeholders.

Eisner, Elliot W. 1992. Educational reform and the ecology of schooling. Teachers College Record 93.4: 610–627.

Eisner discusses the need to consider five dimensions of schooling—the intentional, structural, pedagogical, and evaluative—in implementing meaningful and significant school reform. The author explains the factors that make educational change difficult, including teacher isolation, the persistence of school and teacher norms, and a lack of meaningful professional development for teachers.

Fullan, Michael. 1993. Change forces: Probing the depths of educational reform . London: Falmer.

In this first book in his Change Forces trilogy, Fullan draws on and articulates the principles of chaos theory to explain that transforming the educational system will require partnerships among educators, community agencies, and governments. The author identifies eight basic lessons of a new change paradigm aimed at creating learning societies and sustaining educational change.

Drawing on leadership and change theories and examples of large-scale transformation, Fullan addresses how school leaders can deal with complex change. He offers five core competencies for educators: attending to a broader moral purpose, keeping on top of the change process, cultivating relationships, sharing knowledge, and setting a vision and context for creating coherence in organizations.

Paulson, Rolland 1977. Social and educational change: Conceptual frameworks. Comparative Education Review 21.2–3: 370–395.

This review provides a synthesis of existing theoretical perspectives on social and educational change. Eight frameworks are examined, including evolutionary, neo-evolutionary, structural-functionist systems, Marxian, neo-Marxian, cultural revitalization, and anarchistic-utopian.

Senge, Peter M. 2010. Education for an interdependent world: Developing systems citizens. In The second international handbook of educational change . Edited by Andy Hargreaves, Ann Lieberman, Michael Fullan, and David Hopkins, 131–151. Springer International Handbooks of Education 23. Berlin: Springer.

In this article, Senge points to the need to create a regenerative society where community leaders from education, business, civil society, and local governments work together to support innovation in public schooling. He stresses the importance of systems thinking in approaching the task of building an education system that encourages and sustains community and global citizenship.

The success of educational reform depends on those implementing the reform: the teachers and administrators. The works in this section discuss these educators’ emotions and psychodynamic responses to change. For insight into reform behind the scenes and suggestions for those leading and managing change, see James 2010 . For details on teachers’ emotions in the context of reform and the implications of change for these individuals, see van Veen and Sleegers 2006 and Zembylas 2010 .

James, Chris 2010. The psychodynamics of educational change. In The second international handbook of educational change . Edited by Andy Hargreaves, Michael Fullan, Ann Lieberman, and David Hopkins, 47–64. Springer International Handbooks of Education 23. Berlin: Springer.

This chapter explores the reasons for the high level of affective intensity in educational institutions. It then sets out what may lie behind responses to educational change and, using concepts from systems psychodynamic theory, explores those responses in greater depth. This chapter also seeks to offer pointers for those leading and managing change in schools and colleges.

van Veen, Klaas, and Peter Sleegers. 2006. How does it feel? Teacher’s emotions in a context of change. Journal of Curriculum Studies 38:85–111.

DOI: 10.1080/00220270500109304 Save Citation » Export Citation » Share Citation »

This paper describes how six Dutch secondary school teachers perceive their work within the current educational reform environment. Using a cognitive social-psychological approach to emotions, Van Keen and Sleegers share how these educators appraised the relations between their perceived role as teachers and their situational demands.

Zembylas, Michalinos. 2010. Teacher emotions in the context of educational reforms. In The second international handbook of educational change . Edited by Andy Hargreaves, Michael Fullan, Ann Lieberman, and David Hopkins, 221–236. Springer International Handbooks of Education 23. Berlin: Springer.

In this paper, the author explains that although there is a clear need for teachers and administrators to be involved in the educational reform process, the emotions of change for these individuals and the implications of reform for their wellbeing are rarely addressed.

This section includes works that consider the social and organizational behavior of principals and schools as influenced by the wider social structure such as rules, norms, and routines. For consideration of the effects of control-oriented principals on teacher performance, see Blasé 1990 . To see how institutional theory may be applied to educational reform initiatives, see Burch 2007 . For a framework on how to lead, evaluate, and explain the success or failure of educational reform, see Duke 2004 .

Blasé, Joseph J. 1990. Some negative effects of principals’ control-oriented and protective political behavior. American Educational Research Journal 27.4: 727–753.

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Blasé describes the use of control-manipulative political behaviors by some principals and the negative effects their actions had on involvement and performance of teachers and on school standards.

Burch, Patricia. 2007. Educational policy and practice from the perspective of institutional theory: Crafting a wider lens. Educational Researcher 36.2: 84–95.

DOI: 10.3102/0013189X07299792 Save Citation » Export Citation » Share Citation »

In this paper, Burch provides a framework that integrates recent institutional theory with current issues in public education in the United States. The author identifies the potential gains from increasing the utility of institutional perspectives in educational reform.

Duke, Daniel Linden. 2004. The challenges of educational change . Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Using a five-phase model of the change process practical examples as frameworks, Duke helps the reader understand how to lead reform, evaluate process and outcomes, and explain the success and/or failure of educational change initiatives.

There are many reasons for the lack of change in schools. This works in this section review some of these reasons, including the difficulty of challenging long-held power structures, and the attrition of innovative practices over time. Angus and Mirel 1999 explains some the reasons for the failure and loss of momentum of differentiated curriculum and makes suggestions for future reform efforts. Fink 2000 discusses the “attrition of change” using six conceptual structures.

Angus, David L., and Jeffrey Mirel. 1999. The failed promise of the American high school, 1890–1995 . New York: Teachers College Press.

This book traces the history of schooling in the United States from the professionalization of curriculum planning by elites in the 1890s to the era of standardization, 1975–1995. The authors summarize the failures of the differentiated curriculum at the high school level and make suggestions for promising educational reform.

Fink, Dean. 2000. Good schools, real schools: Why school reform doesn’t last . New York: Teachers College Press.

In this book, Fink explains some of the reasons for the failure and loss of momentum of innovative educational practices in many high schools. He uses six conceptual structures to describe this “attrition of change,” including context, meaning, leadership, structure, culture, and the lives and work of teachers.

This works in this section offer an examination of the history, role, and controversies of public schooling in American society. For a synopsis of US educational reform, see Miles 1998 and Ravitch 1983 . For insight into how economics, community, and power structures have influenced American schooling, see Nespor 1997 and Tyack and Cuban 1995 . For a look at the historical development of US curriculum, see Willis, et al. 1994 .

Miles, M. 1998. Finding keys to school change: A 40-year odyssey. In The international handbook of educational change . Part 1. Edited by Andy Hargreaves, Ann Lieberman, Michael Fullan, and David Hopkins, 37–69. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic.

Miles reflects upon his forty years of work and research on educational change. This book chapter offers a poignant synopsis of reform for researchers and practitioners alike from the perspective of an expert in educational change.

Nespor, Jan. 1997. Tangled up in school: Politics, space, bodies, and signs in the educational process . Sociocultural, Political, and Historical Studies in Education. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

This book offers a singular examination of the role of schools in American society. Nespor gives insight into how economics, community, power structures, and agendas and culture play out at the school level.

Ravitch, Diane. 1983. The troubled crusade: American education, 1945–1980 . New York: Basic Books.

Ravitch describes the history and controversies of American schools and universities since World War II.

Tyack, David B., and Larry Cuban. 1995. Tinkering toward utopia: A century of public school reform . Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.

Tyack and Cuban explore the nature of educational reform, including the cyclical nature of reform and the reasons for the difficulty of breaking traditional molds of schooling. The authors propose focusing on improving teacher instruction from the inside out and keeping the democratic purposes of education at the center of any future change efforts.

Willis, George, William Schubert, Robert Bullough, Craig Kridel, and John Holton, eds. 1994. The American curriculum: A documentary history . Westport, CT: Greenwood.

This book includes thirty-six primary source documents from the historical development of curriculum in the United States. Materials range in date from 1642 to 1983 and include a short summary of significance prior to each paper.

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The Dynamics of Education Reform and School Choice

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Martell L. Teasley, The Dynamics of Education Reform and School Choice, Children & Schools , Volume 39, Issue 3, July 2017, Pages 131–135, https://doi.org/10.1093/cs/cdx015

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As far as I can remember, the United States has been in the flux of education reform. Education reform is the intended goal of changing education, perceived as a social good. Although most education reform takes place at the local level, since the advent of compulsory education in 1918 the politics of education have been germane to local, state, and federal education politics. Contemporarily, the politics of education reform has shifted toward a demand for greater school choice. Education reform has become part of a trend toward privatization of large public entities, particularly when it comes to control, financing, and organization of public school systems. The pressing issue surrounding education reform today is the subject of school choice. School choice depends on market-based reform measures in the form of private schools, charter schools, funding following students, school management flexibility, and the process of money following students ( Whitehurst, 2015).

The direction of education reform under the Trump administration is rather obvious with the selection and U.S. Senate confirmation of Betsy DeVos as secretary of education. In a move reflecting a trend in higher education to hire university presidents who have no academic experience, mainly because of their ability to attract large donations, Trump nominated an outsider to education; however, DeVos is a longtime advocate and donor for school choice measures. As a partner in the DeVos Family Foundation, she is a staunch proponent of and lobbies for the privatization of public schools.

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Transforming education systems: Why, what, and how

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Rebecca winthrop and rebecca winthrop director - center for universal education , senior fellow - global economy and development @rebeccawinthrop the hon. minister david sengeh the hon. minister david sengeh minister of education and chief innovation officer - government of sierra leone, chief innovation officer - directorate of science, technology and innovation in sierra leone @dsengeh.

June 23, 2022

Today, the topic of education system transformation is front of mind for many leaders. Ministers of education around the world are seeking to build back better as they emerge from COVID-19-school closures to a new normal of living with a pandemic. The U.N. secretary general is convening the Transforming Education Summit (TES) at this year’s general assembly meeting (United Nations, n.d.). Students around the world continue to demand transformation on climate and not finding voice to do this through their schools are regularly leaving class to test out their civic action skills.      

It is with this moment in mind that we have developed this shared vision of education system transformation. Collectively we offer insights on transformation from the perspective of a global think tank and a national government: the Center for Universal Education (CUE) at Brookings brings years of global research on education change and transformation, and the Ministry of Education of Sierra Leone brings on-the-ground lessons from designing and implementing system-wide educational rebuilding.   

This brief is for any education leader or stakeholder who is interested in charting a transformation journey in their country or education jurisdiction such as a state or district. It is also for civil society organizations, funders, researchers, and anyone interested in the topic of national development through education. In it, we answer the following three questions and argue for a participatory approach to transformation:  

• Why is education system transformation urgent now? We argue that the world is at an inflection point. Climate change, the changing nature of work, increasing conflict and authoritarianism together with the urgency of COVID recovery has made the transformation agenda more critical than ever. 
• What is education system transformation? We argue that education system transformation must entail a fresh review of the goals of your system – are they meeting the moment that we are in, are they tackling inequality and building resilience for a changing world, are they fully context aware, are they owned broadly across society – and then fundamentally positioning all components of your education system to coherently contribute to this shared purpose.  
• How can education system transformation advance in your country or jurisdiction? We argue that three steps are crucial: Purpose (developing a broadly shared vision and purpose), Pedagogy (redesigning the pedagogical core), and Position (positioning and aligning all components of the system to support the pedagogical core and purpose). Deep engagement of educators, families, communities, students, ministry staff, and partners is essential across each of these “3 P” steps.    

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Our aim is not to provide “the answer” — we are also on a journey and continually learning about what it takes to transform systems — but to help others interested in pursuing system transformation benefit from our collective reflections to date. The goal is to complement and put in perspective — not replace — detailed guidance from other actors on education sector on system strengthening, reform, and redesign. In essence, we want to broaden the conversation and debate.

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Global Education

Global Economy and Development

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Brad Olsen, John McIntosh

April 3, 2024

Darcy Hutchins, Emily Markovich Morris, Laura Nora, Carolina Campos, Adelaida Gómez Vergara, Nancy G. Gordon, Esmeralda Macana, Karen Robertson

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March 8, 2024

Articles on Education reform

Displaying 1 - 20 of 42 articles.

How educator Gloria Jean Merriex used dance, drills and devotion to turn around a failing elementary school in a year

Boaz Dvir , Penn State

Do ‘sputnik moments’ spur educational reform? A rhetoric scholar weighs in

Mark Hlavacik , University of North Texas

40 years ago ‘A Nation at Risk’ warned of a ‘rising tide of mediocrity’ in US schools – has anything changed?

Morgan Polikoff , University of Southern California

George Magoha was a force for better education in Kenya. But he had his flaws

Ishmael Munene , Northern Arizona University

Kenya’s school reform is entering a new phase in 2023 – but the country isn’t ready

Janerose Mutegi Kibaara , Kenyatta University

6 priorities to get Kenya’s curriculum back on track – or risk excluding many children from education

Elisheba Kiru , African Population and Health Research Center and Brenda Wawire , African Population and Health Research Center

England’s planned school reform is just more of the same – innovation expert proposes radical alternative

Sarah Younie , De Montfort University

End of topsy-turvy school year: 5 education issues exposed by the COVID-19  pandemic

Paul W Bennett , Saint Mary’s University

Machines can’t ‘personalize’ education, only people can

Michael Maser , Simon Fraser University

A school system tailored to individual ability rather than age sounds good, but there’s no evidence it works

Rachel Wilson , University of Sydney

How to spark change within our unequal education system: Don’t Call Me Resilient EP 3

Vinita Srivastava , The Conversation

Alberta curriculum: End the failed partisan politics over what kids should learn

Kent den Heyer , University of Alberta

‘School choice’ policies are associated with increased separation of students by social class

Louis Volante , Brock University ; Dominic Wyse , UCL , and Gabriel Gutiérrez , London School of Economics and Political Science

Kenya’s universities need deep reform – not just a hike in fees

George H.W. Bush laid the foundation for education reform

Jack Schneider , UMass Lowell

Stop treating students like customers and start working with them as partners in learning

Kelly E Matthews , The University of Queensland

DeVos and the limits of the education reform movement

Jack Schneider , College of the Holy Cross

Why big bets on educational reform haven’t fixed the US school system

Jack Schneider , College of the Holy Cross and David Menefee-Libey , Pomona College

Will the Greens let the teachers’ union bully them over schools funding?

Michelle Grattan , University of Canberra

Expansion is no longer the answer to improving the Australian education system

Dean Ashenden , The University of Melbourne

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How 20 Years of Education Reform Has Created Greater Inequality

How standardized testing, gentrification, school choice, and economic downturn have widened inequality to create an existential threat to democracy.

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By Michael A. Seelig Jun. 18, 2020

When the latest Program for International Assessment (PISA) results were released in December 2019, many who saw the United States’ ranking continue to stagnate behind its global competitors conceded that the last 20 years and billions of dollars spent on education reform had done essentially nothing . But the rankings don’t tell the whole story. While American students remain roughly the same on aggregate , compared to their international counterparts, the top quarter of American students have been improving their performance on the exam since 2012, even as the bottom 10th percentile lost ground . In other words, something has happened: the achievement gap is widening, a consolidation that is beginning to mimic the increasing consolidation of wealth and opportunity in America.

This statistic is a product of the fact that education policy is not designed to elevate and educate every child. Since the 1990’s, quick and unsustainable schooling reforms have been prioritized that show a disregard for the wider economic realities in America. As schools and parents struggle to make ends meet, billions of dollars have enhanced opportunities for the best students at the cost of opportunities for struggling students. As a result, public education—historically an economic equalizer—has instead helped widen an educational divide that is beginning to mirror the nation’s economic divide.

How We Got It Wrong

Around the turn of the millennium, four major forces converged to shape how the school reform movement would widen inequality: standardized testing, gentrification, school choice, and household economic downturn.

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The first, standardized testing, evolved out of a number of mandates in the wake of 1983’s A Nation at Risk report to increase learning standards and verify they were being met. Standardized testing remains a deeply problematic practice, but good policy that focused on growth and thoughtful administration that enabled greater support could have mitigated the damage. For example, a student that entered 10th grade English reading at the 5th-grade level, could progress—with the help of a talented teacher—three to four years in a single year, but under the existing policy, that teacher would not be rewarded: they would only be deemed ineffective for not getting a child to read at the 10th-grade level. As states pushed mandates to tie proficiency rates to teacher evaluations, many teachers learned to focus on test preparation, above true learning, while the most talented teachers let the market guide them away from schools that needed their abilities most.

The second factor was a renewed interest in urban real estate. As middle-class twenty-somethings, disenchanted with the alienation of the suburbs, began heading to places like Chicago’s Northwest side, Williamsburg in Brooklyn, Northeast Philadelphia, Eastern Washington DC, the Arts District in Los Angeles and similar gentrifying enclaves across the U.S., developers quickly followed. But development needed those free-spirited twenty-somethings to stick around once they became family-focused thirty-somethings, a decision driven by schools. And since city councilmembers, administrators, and mayors were also hungry for the continued development—to increase the real estate tax base and improve budgets—both public and private forces demanded schools get better to keep pace with gentrification. And it had to be quick.

In this context, mayors often bargained with their constituencies to plant roots. Chicago’s Rahm Emanuel, for example, pleaded with middle-class families to not flee to the suburbs by promising better options for their children: “Don’t head for the doors when your kid’s in fifth grade or sixth grade—for the suburbs—because the city of Chicago is going to give you a high-quality life with a high-quality education for your children.” But making this happen required the third force: school choice.

Whereas testing and real estate were more or less natural evolutions of policy and economic cycles, school choice was air-dropped in to bring education up to pace with the market economy. The idea had been around since the 1950s but had been put in a drawer when it was shown to be used to sustain segregation in the wake of the 1954 Brown v Board of Education decision. However, in 1990, it was rebranded in a now-famous book by John Chubb and Terry Moe called Politics, Markets and America’s Schools.

The way it was presented in urban schools was relatively simple: young, predominantly white families moving to these gentrifying neighborhoods had no public option but the neighborhood schools, so—when the existing schools were insufficient—a new school would have to be created that provided a “good” choice, in most cases a charter school or, in fewer cases, a district-operated selective enrollment school. Both relied upon the tactic of pushing out neighborhood children and importing high-scoring, high-ability children from surrounding areas. Since traditional schools were seen as responsible for the existing state of schools, parallel alternatives would need private operators in charge, because of their profitable business track records.

This moment represented a unique shift in city governance. Gentrification was nothing new, but what was shifting was how city governments viewed their purpose: referred to as “third-wave gentrification,” city halls changed their mission from supporting the neediest to supporting development and offering tax breaks and abatements on new construction. As the generation that embraced New Deal and Great Society philosophies was retiring, it was replaced by a new breed of managers bearing a new business-friendly ideology, which naturally forced cities to compete for people, companies, and business. For schools, this typically took the form of a public-private partnership like the Center City Schools Initiative in Philadelphia or the Chicago Commercial Club, which shaped policy around market-driven education that could then be enacted through the city or state governments.

Between the testing requirements that emerged with No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and the need to improve neighborhood optics for increasing real estate revenues, the sudden need for schools to perform presented a new frontier for the industry. Charter schools had begun springing up through the 1990s in Minnesota, Colorado, California, Massachusetts and Michigan, but after the passage of NCLB they went supersonic. NCES data shows fewer than 2,000 charter schools in the US in the year 2000 but by 2017 that number had grown to over 7,000. And that only counts the ones that had survived: thousands more disrupted school districts and countless lives but shut down due to mismanagement or enrollment problems. The Heritage Foundation, a strong proponent for charter schools, cites an average year-to-year growth of 10-15% nationally during this period, generating the sort of critical mass that moved now-noticeable numbers of children out of the traditional system and leaving it with sizable funding and population gaps that required a serious reorganization of priorities. During this period, charter enrollment grew from around 450,000 students to over three million.

School districts worked to stop the bleeding by reforming neighborhood schools as magnet, testing, or selective enrollment—which guaranteed a high-performing school—but only by displacing students from the neighborhood, who may have viewed that school, problematic as it was, as one of the only stable things in their lives. If “improvement” just meant “skimming the best kids from around town,” public schools could do that too: selective enrollment schools grew from around 1,400 schools in 2000 to nearly 3,200 over the same period, with their student grab growing from 1.2 million to 2.5 million students.

Many charter schools were unquestionably able to post drastically improved test scores and even offer cleaner, modernized facilities compared to the traditional neighborhood schools. And some operators, especially early on, remained true to the original idea of charter schools, one that was originally put forth by the teacher’s union, of all groups, where a limited number of experimental schools could serve as test laboratories with lessened restrictions. But these few were quickly drowned out by the operators who embraced the competitive ethos of the new city governments and saw an opportunity to tap a well of steady government funding with few restrictions and very little oversight. Some were guided by an even greater desire to leverage schools as a weapon in what sociologists describe as the “revanchist” motivations of gentrification, taking revenge on those groups thought to be at fault for the recessions of the 1970s and early 1990s that lost billions in revenue for the owner and donor class. Some, on the more extreme wing of libertarianism, even sought to destroy traditional schools altogether, leaving charters as the only feasible alternative.

School choice at a large scale was predicated on a deeply flawed understanding of how schools behave. School choice doesn’t necessarily drive schools to compete for best practices; it more often drives them to compete for the best kids, the students who are easiest—and cheapest —to teach. Charter operators often deny such practices , but it’s been well documented by both national and local media. By 2013, Washington D.C. charter schools were expelling students at rates 28 times greater than the traditional schools . Chicago charters, in 2014 were found to expel at 12 times the rate of traditional schools . In some instances, incomplete paperwork was sufficient means for expulsion to the traditional school, who, while also requiring all paperwork to be on file, do not have the liberty to remove a student when it is missing. Moreover, the expulsion tactic was usually carefully administered to ensure the school had already received funding for pre-purge counts, while the traditional school would see an increase in enrollment without any additional funding.

Such cherry-picking doesn’t even include the hundreds of stories in local media, from Newark to Los Angeles, about the families that have been kept out altogether through tactical gate-keeping techniques like refusal to participate in the free and reduced lunch program even when eligible, and more popularly, parent contracts that required donations of cash and volunteering that are near impossible for poor families and single parents who work multiple jobs.

The flip-side of these practices meant a disproportionate number of students with disabilities, discipline problems, unstable housing or home life, social-emotional issues, non-English speakers― the unchosen ―would all begin to accumulate in the traditional schools while choice and selective enrollment curated the lowest cost students into their freshly painted classrooms. As a veteran teacher in Flint, Michigan, put it : “We have a school district where all that’s left are damaged kids who are being exposed to other damaged kids, and it’s causing more damage.”

Such competition for the easy to teach happens at all levels. When initiatives like Race To The Top connected test scores to teacher evaluations, English and Math departments fought over AP and Honors classes, as those were the classes in which students would score higher on standardized tests regardless of the teacher’s abilities as a teacher, guaranteeing better marks on their annual evaluations

When schools are asked to compete, the greatest factors impacting outcomes are what happens when children are not at school. As a result, “choice” did not, in fact, incentivize better schooling, but mostly shuffled kids around an already existent bell curve, guided by parents’ abilities to navigate the intentionally complex dual school system.

Temple University researcher Maia Cucchiara concludes that “while the goals of [choice] policy may be ostensibly worthy, one of its consequences is to reinscribe existing status positions and inequalities.”

The fourth factor created a natural limitation to the capacity of choice: household economic downturn. What renders so many education reform efforts futile from the outset—so much so that we avoid talking about it—is the fact that a student’s academic achievement, with few exceptions, is completely tethered to the family’s income and the opportunities it can provide. Many reformers debate the exceptions to the rule and envision reform as merely the scaling of those exceptions. But the exceptions almost always rely on truly unique circumstance: an unexpected source of social capital for a child or a truly rare, once in a lifetime teacher like Jaime Escalante (who still wasn’t successful with every child and utilized tactics that were not scalable, caveats that don’t make for good movies). Just as an inspiring uncle or family friend cannot be recreated at scale in a school, a proficient student cannot be manufactured through coaching alone. Family income creates numerous intangibles that just help a child do better in school. It’s why the SAT performance graph each year continues to show an indisputable correlation between family income and achievement .

During the 1990s and 2000s, despite what the stock market reported, life for the middle class across the nation, and particularly in cities, was not getting better. City governments turned away from supporting the needy, and the economy shifted from manufacturing to a new tech-focused economy that had no place for low-skilled work. NAFTA, the recession and automation are estimated to have lost America nearly 5 million jobs, since the 1990s many of which paid union wages and benefits. Phenomena, such as the jobless recoveries aided owners’ bottom lines but not workers, many of whom found work that paid below a living wage or more recently, in gig work. Meanwhile, average home prices (adjusted for inflation) between 1970 and 2016 have doubled , the cost to raise a child increased 23 percent, and healthcare costs increased 136% - leaving many families without coverage. Wages, however, have stagnated, and the number of two-parent homes decreased by nearly 20 percent, with more than 60 percent of parents citing quality childcare as being very difficult to find and afford. Americans have compensated with household debt, which has exploded to approximately 90 percent of GDP today.

The impact this has had on children is staggering: UNICEF’s 2012 report on Child Well-Being in Developed Countries ranked American children 26th out of 29 countries across the dimensions of education, health and safety, housing, and material well-being. The U.S. is 28th out of 29 in relative poverty rankings, while the country we like to hold as the high watermark for quality education, Finland, is unsurprisingly at number one. American children do rank first for childhood obesity, yet they are among the least likely to eat breakfast. And they are among the most likely children in the world to witness violence or homicide. Research at Johns Hopkins and Washington University has now drawn definitive links between poverty and depression, citing a 37% increase among teens since 2005. Meanwhile, budget cuts to schools have ballooned not just teacher-student ratios, but counselors and nurses as well. In 2017, counselors topped-out at 903:1 in Arizona, while one school nurse in some parts of Michigan was responsible for over 4,000 students at a time when tap water in the region was deemed toxic.

When the reform strategy was predicated on competing for capable kids from stable homes—and these kids were becoming fewer each year—how could the strategy do anything but reshuffle the deck?

It’s important to understand that a school is much more than a building with a bunch of teachers and desks in it. A school is a place where young people forge relationships, establish norms and habits, learn to deal with conflict, identify role models and understand how to interact with adults and people from different cultures and backgrounds. It is these things that build a school community: finding a friend who helps you in science and who you help in English. Finding a group of people who introduce you to new books, movies, music, ideas, and worlds. A school is also the parents who make costumes and sets for the play, volunteer on field trips, chaperone dances, host fundraisers, donate books to the library, speak to the class on career day, and are around when someone else’s parents are not. They let you come to their house after school because they know your house is empty. Sometimes they let you stay for dinner. They look out for you.

Imagine a system where those kids and parents from your neighborhood are all systematically chosen out, to be grouped together somewhere else.

Now imagine being in the school with the kids who were left behind.

Conclusions

The Program for International Assessment (PISA) results show the learning damage that is happening as a result of our approach to education reform over the last 20 years. Reforms have aided the improvement of the best students while creating a deep accumulation of human debt at the bottom, resulting in a reciprocal relationship with the wider gulf of opportunity and income inequality in America.

There are four chief conclusions that need to be understood.

First, choice and the market approach to schooling violates a critical rule of democracy: that you can’t have a market of winners and losers dictated by the capacities of the able and self-interested few in a system designed to serve the collective interests of a nation’s many. Like the healthcare industry, market-based education helps some people get better, but leaves many to die, both literally and figuratively. As long as quality learning is available primarily to those that are the chosen, the growing inequality seen in the PISA will continue to widen.

Second, the current model tethers learning success to middle-class advantages and so the failure of the economy to create wider prosperity makes the failure of the broader education system inevitable with only a small subset able to post gains. Had the free-market fable of prosperity for all actually come to fruition, schools would have an unlimited supply of constantly regenerating strong, healthy students to sustain the system in whatever form it took. Then again, were this the case, education may never have been seen as having a crisis in the first place, which brought the call for reforms. As wealthy social democracies around the world show, once society is funded and provided for, other problems may persist while education is more a process of tinkering around the edges and tuning-up an otherwise effective system.

Third, while politicians spend time and effort fighting free-riders on entitlement programs such as welfare and Medicaid, the irony of recent education reform is that our current education system is the greatest creator of an entire underclass of future free-riders through its ongoing consolidation of opportunity and wealth. This raises a fundamental question about the future of American society: What will happen to the aforementioned unchosen? People across the political spectrum are rarely able to offer an answer beyond “not my problem” or moving these children from place to place in a human shell game before they eventually vanish within the messiness of the system. But if you live in America, it’s very much your problem. In an economy that no longer has a place for low-skilled labor, the uneducated of today become the unemployed and unpurposed of tomorrow. They are the costly outcasts, the prison population that costs taxpayers billions of dollars each year, and the marginalized who are managed by costly forms of social aid, police, fire, medical care, social work, yet still cause violence, crime and overall declining quality of society. As the saying goes, it’s much easier to teach young boys than to repair broken men.

This approach to education is the very definition of an unsustainable practice and emblematic of the types of “solutions” that the government has foisted upon Americans since the 1970s. And it is these very types of approaches to government that make 20- and 30-year-old Americans so frustrated with previous generations of leadership. Their frustration is not unfounded. Government leaders have consistently sacrificed long-term improvement, solving only the optics of problems without addressing the underlying issues, creating even more complex problems that just resurface in a few years’ time for future generations to solve.

Fourth, and most importantly, social impact work often done in the non-specific service of “improving education” has shown that the private innovation space for education has been unable—or perhaps unwilling—to distinguish between moving a social organization forward and moving society forward, an excellent example of the question Kania and Kramer address in their Collective Impact work: Are we who work in this space, despite the success of driving performance indicators in our respective work, aware of the wider collateral damage being created in our wake?

If not, there needs to be a serious dialogue about the way social innovation proceeds, how it measures impact, and what it truly incentivizes to avoid wider systemic destruction. On the other hand, if we are, in fact, aware of the collateral damage, then there are some deep ethical questions to be answered about the way our work could actually be sabotaging democratic institutions to serve individual interests under the guise of social good.

It seems naïve to imagine that in an environment of competition, no one anticipated schools trying to get ahead by only taking the children that helped them and marginalizing those that didn’t. It’s not hard to imagine that as a probable outcome of forcing schools to compete for their livelihood, rewarding the winners and sanctioning the losers, at a time when the core foundations of what helps people find success in a society—jobs, income, social programs, and community programs—were being systematically stripped away.

Nonetheless, this new reality cannot be unseen and it has profound implications for our society, in the present and for the future. Operators in the social innovation space have some important decisions to make. Either, we accept the new structure where unelected, wealthy organizations get to drive the outcomes of a society which, as the last 20 years have shown us, prefers outcomes that are inherently unequal and oftentimes racist and classist, or we have to decide that we want to sustain a flourishing democracy and work to restore its institutions and drive the indicators that demonstrate this wider impact.

What Can We Do?

Educators are always asked what is wrong with education, and there are two completely opposite ways to answer the questions. Everything, it’s a total mess is more commonly heard before the subject is changed. But the second, which takes a lot of energy and explanation actually engages ongoing dialogue: Nothing: it’s working exactly as it was designed.

Education’s current design is the problem and it was not built with an end in mind—or it was built to an end that is unacceptable for purposes of a healthy functioning society.

First, we need to reframe our thinking about schools and understand them in the wider context of promoting equality measurable on broad, national, and global indicators. This means establishing a clear, re-defined purpose for public education and a mission for schools that cannot be manipulated for the gain of individual units at the cost of the wider effort. We must separate our business mind—which requires competition—from our social mind, which requires cooperation.

Second, we need much better measurement of organizational performance that both recognizes the wider geography of schools and communities and accounts for the collateral damage we are leaving in the wake of our efforts. Just like we can’t assess coal production or fracking solely on their abilities to create energy, we too need to better understand what damage is being caused to the social ecosystems we inhabit. We need to use the lever of education to promote greater equality and opportunity as measured by these broader economic and well-being indicators, not those that naturally go up by picking the right kids.

This focus should be the guiding light for social impact ventures in the coming years. We do not yet have the measurement tools and systems to truly understand this, but we do have broad indicators like the UNICEF survey, the PISA results, and a host of other well-being focused metrics. They are helpful but insufficient. Thankfully we have some very smart people in our foundations, universities, think tanks, nonprofits and social services who are hopefully willing to shift their attention to thinking deeply on these problems.

Lastly, we must recognize the existential threat a system that enhances inequality poses to democracy and need to push through the inevitable fatigue that emerges when we see something before us as too big or too ambitious. We must stop saying things like “this is just the current reality” and be bold in our attempt to change the conversation about how we define success. We must be unapologetic about our focus on society even if that means an indicator or metric doesn’t make us look immediately good. We have led the conversation that changes federal and state regulations multiple times in the past and it’s time we lead it again. This must become the new conversation in education. American democracy depends on it.

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