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2006 - The Process of Change is Not Well Understood |
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Written by Robert A. Southworth Jr.
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Wednesday, 21 June 2006 08:09 |
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Although schools have been able to change the content of the subjects they teach, the Programmatic Regularities (Sarason, 1996), such as the basic eight-period schedule or the primacy of English and Math have resisted larger changes. In fact, here in New York City, it is easier to change pencils than it is to change the bus schedules, the lunch menus, the amount of time teachers are required to work, etc. Taking an example from 100 years ago, the progressive Education movement tried to respond to the rise of industrialism by advocating that schools become counter-cultural agencies that “correct the human and social devastation of industrial capitalism” Cohen, 1998, p. 427). And yet today schools are more conservative and reflect more of our industrialization 100 years later! The response to industrialization through school change did not overcome the programmatic regularities of how we think of school—the schedules, the times, the administration structure—and this signifies the failure to understand how schools really work.
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