Changing Education Systems

Mel Ainscow is Emeritus Professor of Education at the University of Manchester and Professor of Education at the University of Glasgow, UK.Christopher Chapman is Professor of Educational Policy and Practice at the University of Glasgow, UK.Mark Hadfield is Professor of Education at Cardiff University, UK.

Ainscow, Chapman, and Hadfield combine their experiences to offer evidence for change built on relational collaboratives that value local knowledge and deep learning through rapid communication networks among and between the worlds of policy, research, and practice. They are academics in action. Approaching systems change through generative collaboration, they advance educational equity through engaged and reflexive work with practitioners and policy makers. This is valuable reading for educators who want to contribute to ensuring that our educational systems are the drivers for equity and opportunity for every learner.Elizabeth Kozleski, Stanford Graduate School of Education, USAAinscow, Chapman and Hadfield's new volume 'Changing Education systems: a research-based approach' is a timely and substantial new contribution to the school improvement field. The authors are an experienced and formidable team who have built on their research and work with schools and policy makers over more than three decades. Their book focusses on the 'big issues' in research and improvement. The authors are striking examples of engaged researchers with a common commitment to enhancing equity, promoting inclusion and improving the quality of education and outcomes for all. They provide a timely account and critique of three major improvement initiatives in England, Scotland and Wales identifying successes, challenges and lessons learned. They show the importance of research knowledge and the use of data as catalysts for change. Their book reveals that such knowledge needs to be combined with sustained engagement with practitioners to have a positive and sustained impact. Their analyses reveal the difficulties in promoting excellence and equity in highly unequal societies and the need for long term commitment from policy makers (local and national) as well as respect for and involvement with practitioners to support improvement. Achieving sustained change is, as these authors acknowledge, difficult but this volume provides important new insights on the policy making process and enhances our understanding of the potential of research to support work with schools and their staff. Written in clear and accessible language without over simplification it provides an important resource to guide policy makers and practitioners seeking to foster positive change to enhance educational equity and excellence to the benefit of all students. Pamela Sammons, Professor at the Department of Education and Emeritus Fellow Jesus College, University of Oxford, UKThe most pressing challenge facing educators regardless of where we live, is how to influence school education to positively address educational disadvantage at scale, and how to make this last. As this continues to confound, some recent research is making real inroads into how to move ahead – this book presents such scholarship. Bringing a collective wisdom built on years of research assembled through engaged partnerships with teachers, heads and policy shapers on three major change initiatives, the authors offer genuinely exciting insights into the promises and pitfalls of system change. This book is for anyone interested in understanding the realities of change in education systems. Allan Walker, Joseph Lau Chair Professor of International Educational Leadership, The Education University of Hong Kong

• Foreword; Preface; 1. Changing education systems; 2. City Challenge in England: drawing the lessons.; 3. Schools Challenge Cymru: a catalyst for change; 4. Developing a regional self-improving school system: collaboration, competition and transition.; 5. The Scottish Attainment Challenge: addressing poverty-related outcomes; 6. New challenges: managing change in an educational market place.; 7. Addressing barriers to change; 8. A research-based approach; References