Chapter 10: Stakeholders Are Important Too!

We have used the term “stakeholders” throughout this book and these groups include teachers, other support staff, students, parents, school trustees, community leaders, businesspeople, religious leaders, and so on. In Chapters 1 and 3 we highlighted the importance of considering stakeholder perspectives and forging positive relationships and partnerships with them as the school is frequently the center of the community. This chapter specifically examines teachers, students, parents, and community leaders’ perspectives as they are the ones who are most likely to be affected by change processes and associated initiatives. Indeed, teachers are most frequently the main stakeholder group within a change, in that they have the capacity to formally and informally shape the vision of the change, engage or disengage with the change, and ultimately the change success rests largely on their efforts.