The New Meaning of Educational Change. - book review

School Administrator, June, 2002 by Leonard H. Elovitz

Coordinator of Graduate Programs in Educational Leadership, Kean University, Union, N.J.

In the newly issued third edition of The New Meaning of Educational Change, Michael Fullan, dean of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto, has provided us with an excellent reference to help school leaders bring about and manage the change process.

The first part of the book deals with the meaning of educational change and how it works. Fullan argues that many school innovations are not well thought out nor are they connected to the stated goals of education. Therefore change does not always mean progress. He also shares concerns about the number of innovations a school can effectively incorporate at once and the short time frame given for expected results.

In order for desired outcomes to be achieved, Fullan says educational leaders should concentrate on capacity building to turn schools and districts into organizations that will have the ability to accept, implement and sustain beneficial educational change.

"Educational change, above all, is a people-related phenomenon for each and every individual," he says. This leads to a discussion of the roles of the individuals in the following positions in the process of change: teachers, principals, students, district administrators, consultants, and parents and the community.

(The New Meaning of Educational Change (3rd edition) by Michael G. Fullan, Teachers College Press, 1234 Amsterdam Ave., New York, NY 10027, 2001, 297 pp. with index, $54 hardcover, $26.95 softcover)