Images of the Practitioner and Strategies of Educational Change

Abstract

Three strategies of planned educational change are derived from current discussions about educational innovation. Each strategy is based on a particular image of the practitioner: as a Rational Man, as a Cooperator, and as a Powerless Functionary. The strategies are described in terms of their locus of change, channel of influence and change-agent; and their efficiency is assessed in terms of effort, coverage and yield. Because each image fails to take into account certain critical features of school settings, the strategies associated with each of them are limited in value. A strategy that seeks to combine the key insights of each image is proposed as an alternative to existing strategies.