Extending educational planning discourse: A new strategic planning model

To academic visionaries the new century appears to have an emerging environment characterized by increased complexity, uncertainty, unpredictability which, some have argued, render traditional notions of planning and management irrelevant. The expectations of management and planning scholars carry the implicit assumption that somehow individual capability and organizational capacities will rise to meet the enormous challenges of this new environment. In the light of this situation the purposes of this paper are: (1) to briefly examine the limitations and criticisms of traditional educational planning; (2) to outline the emerging concepts and processes which collectively form a new paradigm for strategic planning; (3) to discuss the new model within the context of changing national policy and planning environments and increased localization; (4) to review the limited results of empirical research related to more participatory planning models; and (5) to offer a critique of the assumptions and practicality of the new model in the process of planning and sustaining educational change in developing countries