Chapter 3: Stakeholders and Change Participants – Important Influencers

Education, unlike other sectors, has many different stakeholder groups who have an interest in the quality of education. As Barbara Talbert Jackson stated back in 1993, education is a focal point for many societal discussions due to all of us having been participants in some aspect of our educational system, either in the kindergarten to grade 12, vocational education and training, and/or postsecondary. As a result of our education experiences, we all feel qualified to hold an opinion about teaching, learning, and assessment. We know that education system policies are frequently complicated due to bitter partisanship which actively interferes with progress and positive change (Govender, 2004; Lakes, 2007; PACER, 2011; Webber et al., 2012).