Leadership, Learning and Systemic Reform

For three consecutive years, opinion polls in the US have placed education as the top national issue (USA Today, 1999). `Education, Education, Education' has been the personal mantra of UK Prime Minister Tony Blair. These responses are not unique, governments across the globe are engaged in the education reform business, motivated by a range of concerns. Drawing on the experience of a number of countries, this article explores the context for education reform, offering insights into the reform process and questioning some of the conventional orthodoxies about the nature of education change. The author argues that the structural reforms which have been the pre-occupation of governments over recent years have been limited in their impact because of their lack of connection to learning – teacher learning and student learning – and because of the ways in which policy-makers have embarked on the change voyage. She argues that governments need to move away from a compliance models of educational reform, towards an approach which reflects the aspirations of schools and communities, and which is supported by forms of leadership connected to learning.