Experience of imposed educational change by a heterogeneous group of teachers.

Abstract

From the extensive research on educational change undertaken world-wide, it is evident that its implementation has often failed, due to various reasons. A reason that is very often given in this regard is that initiators of educational change do not keep in mind that successful implementation of change and its sustainability require, first and foremost, an inherent change in the human being. For almost a decade, the s have participated in various international research projects directed at understanding how teachers experience educational change and how it influences their work lives. They report on the insights from one of these studies, which dealt specifically with the differences in experience of imposed post-apartheid educational changes by teachers who had worked previously in the different sections of the ethnic-based education system prior to 1994. The expectations of teachers regarding the new education dispensation and their experiences of the reality of policy implementation are addressed.

(South African Journal of Education: 2003 23 (2): 94-100)