The Future of Education

The phenomenon of educational borrowing is currently one of the key instruments of educational reform and change (Phillips, Ochs 2003). Traditional processes of so-called educational change (Orlosky, Smith 1972) can hardly be imagined today in the conditions of a globalised educational market based on comparative metrics and analyses without the implementation of adopted models of educational policies or practices, or without the inspiration of so-called best practices. The aim of the dissertation (doctoral thesis) is to comprehensively describe the intra-school processes that take place on the basis of and after the implementation of the change(s) in a specific selected school organisation, using an example of educational change based on educational borrowing. This will be an analysis of the impact on the school culture that includes a wide range of school conditions and actors – the organisational, curricular, methodological and finally the effect dimension in terms of impact on learning outcomes or student achievement. Thus, the dissertation will be based on the classic organisational case study design (Berg 1968), but based on the researcher’s active participation in the organisation as a member experiencing organisational culture change. Thus, the research approach of the dissertation draws on school ethnography (Ogbu 1981) and the more recent approach of so-called organisational ethnography (Ybema et al. 2009).

 

Keywords: Educational Change, School Culture, Educational Policy, School Inclusion

 

REFERENCES

 

[1] Berg, C. (1968). Case Studies in Organizational Research and Education. Acta Sociologica, 11(1-2), 1-11. [2] Ogbu, J. U. (1981). School Ethnography: A Multilevel Approach. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 12(1), 3–29. [3] Orlosky, D., & Smith, B. O. (1972). Educational Change: Its Origins and Characteristics. The Phi Delta Kappan, 53(7), 412–414. [4] Phillips, D. & Ochs, K. (2003). Processes of Policy Borrowing in Education: some explanatory and analytical devices. Comparative Education, 39(4), 451-461. [5] Ybema, S., Yanow, D., Wels, H. and Kamsteeg, F.H. (2009). Organizational Ethnography: Studying the Complexities of Everyday Life London: Sage Publications Ltd., 304 pp.