Transforming Education : Meanings, myths and complexity

Transforming Education challenges the current global orthodoxy that ‘educational transformation’ can be achieved through a step-by-step implementation of centralised, performance-based strategies for school improvement. Complex responsive processes theory is utilised in an original way to critique leadership myths and explore the alternative, deeper meanings of educational transformation. The theory opens up new forms of understanding about how ordinary practitioners negotiate the meanings of ‘improvement’ in their everyday practice. It is in the gap between the emergence of these local interactions and the predetermined designs of policy-makers that educational transformation can be lost or found. This book is an essential read for education professionals and students interested in the fields of complexity, education policy, leadership and management.