Metamorphosis and the management of change

Smith, R.D.

Abstract

Talk of educational reform and of the importance of ‘the management of change’ in education and elsewhere is still in vogue. However it often seems concerned to persuade us that if we engage fully with change rather than resisting it we will find our lives more meaningful, thus omitting the important matter of the goal of the change in question. Change here is in any case invariably a euphemism for the impoverishment of education and the annihilation of its ideals, together with the deprofessionalisation of teachers and other educators. Recent writers about educational change tend to be less concerned with an ever-changing, labile world than with how to make the transition—and make others make the transition—from one stable condition of things to another. Different ways of thinking about change, drawing on different literature, might help us see beyond the ways in which we are currently being asked to respond to educational change and reform.

Citation

Smith, R. (2016). Metamorphosis and the management of change. Journal of Philosophy of Education, 50(1), 8-19. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9752.12169

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 17, 2015
• Online Publication Date: Feb 23, 2016
• Publication Date: Feb 23, 2016
• Deposit Date: Sep 25, 2015
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 23, 2018
• Journal: Journal of Philosophy of Education
• Print ISSN: 0309-8249
• Electronic ISSN: 1467-9752
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 50
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 8-19
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9752.12169
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1430927