1.2 Change and the knowledge base of educational administration  (Page 15/16)

Insights into Organizational Change

A number of insights can be gleaned from this district’s journey through second-order change. Two are highlighted and discussed here.

Insight #1. Appropriately educated teams can be an effective mechanism for change. The findings of this study indicatethat teams were the major organizing structure that ensured the successful transition to middle schools in the district. Teammembers did not agree on everything, but they developed similar philosophies about middle schools and a common purpose. Members ofteams supported each other’s personal transition from disequalibrium to understanding, and brought new knowledge andpurposeful exchanges into the learning context. The networking within and among teams provided a synergy that fostered andfacilitated change throughout the district and increased the high personal involvement of teachers and administrators in the changeprocess. Teams were the major vehicles through which teachers learned from their peers and, through purposeful dialogue,developed shared meaning about school-aged adolescents and their instructional and emotional needs. Wheatley (1992) affirms that thereconstruction of meaning is essential for change because meaning is the“strange attractor”toward which al action is directed.

Insight #2. Change occurs as new meaning is constructed from new knowledge, engendered by the context in whichthe change occurs. Change is not about instituting a new program. A new program may be the outcome of change, but substantive change isabout the evolution of altered mental models that frame and reframe thinking. New knowledge and new experiences are prerequisites tothe construction of new meaning and the reframing of one’s thinking. To change schools, the opportunity to learn must beavailable to participants. The context in which learning takes place is significant because as the context shifts, new knowledgewill emerge and new meaning will be constructed.

In this district’s change from junior highs to middle schools, many opportunities to learn and acquire knowledgewere available to participants: workshops, site visits, university courses, and team discussions, to name a few. As the districtshifted from junior high schools to a middle school model, the context was altered. As the altered context combined with the newknowledge about middle schools, new meaning was constructed and the mental models of schooling for adolescents were altered. Withinthis altered context, altered meaning and altered mental models produced new ways of thinking, acting, and working within thedistrict, demonstrating the results of successful second-order change. These changes were consistent with the theories ofsecond-order change as espoused by Hillary, 1990; Levy, 1986; Walzawick, Weakland,&Fisch, 1974.

Summary

Schools are complex systems and changing them is a complex process, with solutions that, according to Heifetz andLinsky (2002), are both technical and adaptive. An imposed agenda by local, state, or national policymakers may result in some minoradjustments, but little will change for school-aged youth unless, as Sarason (1990) suggests, the deeper levels of school culturesare penetrated and examined.