The Self-Transforming School combines an insightful meta-analysis of factors contributing to the success of schools, and an examination of powerful mega-trends that are shaping developments in education, to offer the first mega-analysis in education policy and practice. The book spans fifty years, beginning with Caldwell and Spinks’ ground-breaking work The Self-Managing School which advocated innovative approaches that are now accepted as preferred practice, before offering a prognosis and plan for the future.
The book argues that all schools in all settings can secure success for all students in an era where society and the economy are changing constantly and dramatically. Although schools find some support in local and global networks, externally designed re-structuring, re-staffing, or command-and-control direction isn’t sufficient to achieve transformation. Instead of replicating particular approaches to achieve modest improvement, leadership of the highest quality needs to be deeply embedded in schools and their systems. Caldwell and Spinks propose three important points that need to be taken into consideration:
-schools are often at different stages of self-transformation
-self-transformation requires a high level of professionalism, and must include teacher education and on-going professional development
-funding is critically important, and efforts to build a capacity for self-transformation are constrained by what is available.
The book gives particular attention to developments in Australia, Brazil, Canada, England, Finland, Hong Kong, India, New Zealand, Shanghai, Singapore and the United States. It will be of key interest to school leaders, policy makers, and academics and postgraduate students engaged in research on equity, student performance in highly disadvantaged settings and education policy.
1: Narratives in Self-Management 2: Expectations and Impact of Self-Management 3: Unchaining the Self-Managing School 4: A Study of Contrasts in the West 5: Can the West Catch Up? 6: Possibilities for the Powerhouses 7: Contours of Change 8: Innovation Everywhere 9: The Transformation of Learning 10: Financial Capital and Transformation 11: Funding Models and their Fitness for Purpose 12: Re-discovering Social and Spiritual Capital 13: The Knowledge 14: Governance Ethos Leadership Policy 15: Narratives in Self-Transformation
Biography
Brian J. Caldwell is Managing Director and Principal Consultant at Educational Transformations, Australia, and Professorial Fellow and former Dean of Education at the University of Melbourne, Australia.
Jim M. Spinks is Director of All Across the Line and a former school principal who consults widely on student-focused planning and resource allocation, both in Australia and internationally.
‘The impact of the work of Caldwell and Spinks on policy makers and practitioners over the past twenty-five years has been enormous and this new book takes their thinking to a new and exciting frontier, one that will inspire the next generation of teachers wherever they are in the world.’ - Dame Pat Collarbone, Director of Creating Tomorrow Ltd, UK
