Changing Change: Toward a Design Science and Art

This article argues that educational change ispreoccupied with process at the expense of substance. This preoccupation results from an inherent biastoward viewing change as good and from the dominanceof technocracy over democracy as the value forselecting change strategies and goals. Using testingas an example, the effects of change bias andtechnocracy on the lifeworld of schools is examined. It is proposed that change be transformed from apolicy science to a design field within which not onlywould the verification of change strategies beimportant but so would the situational validation ofbroader goals and objectives.