Reforming Education and Its Cultures

In: American behavioral scientist: ABS, Band 42, Heft 6, S. 1072-1091

Abstract

School reform initiatives have been with us for over a decade. Reform has taken place within a social and intellectual context that has addressed education's contribution to society and the culture within which it resides and new discoveries regarding teaching and learning that change the nature of education. One goal of reform has been to take on different roles and responsibilities regarding global economic realities and new values of equity and excellence, as well as reform itself, in ways that would lead to a new and different national culture. Also, educational institutions have been asked to change their culture in light of new theories of teaching and learning and new instructional and administrative ways to organize. These endeavors have not always worked in concert with each other, producing significant conflicts that need resolution if this latest wave of reform is to have significant influence on the general and school cultures.