Section II – Rapid Change: Success Stories from Educational Leaders

Section II consists of Chapters 7–12 and in contrast to the previous section’s more theoretical focus, Section II has a more pragmatic orientation. Chapter 7 presents leaders’ insights about the drivers for change as well as their intrapersonal processes that enable them to take an inventory of their knowledge, skills, beliefs, and values that served as assets or deficits in their change implementations as well as outlines their pre-planning and visioning processes. The most difficult form of change is that of culture or “people” which is presented in Chapter 8. In contrast programmatic change tends to be less complex if the culture is positive and the pragmatics associated with program change is discussed in Chapter 9. Stakeholders have a key role to play in any change as they can support or disrupt change initiatives. Chapter 10 examines the perspectives of teachers, students, and parents and the community about change. Chapter 11 examines how context can influence change implementation and must be considered by change agents as part of the change management process. The final chapter provides advice and recommendations from successful change leaders based upon their successful experiences with rapid change.