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Innovation seems to have a clear cut between the change agent and its client system.
On the contrary, Fullan views every stakeholder in the educational change as a change
agent. Fullan and Stiegerlbauer (1991) have given a promise for the change agent that
"there is enormous potential for true, meaningful change simply in building coalition
with other change agents, both within one's own group and across all group."
(Ellsworth, 2001)
Fullan (1982, 1991) proposed that there are four broad phases in the change process:
initiation, implementation, continuation, and outcome.
Initiation
The factors that affecting the initiation phases include:
1. Existence and quality of innovations
2. Access to innovations
3. Advocacy from central administration
4. Teacher advocacy
5. External change agents
Implementation
Fullan and Stigelbauer (1991) identified three areas of the major factors affecting
implementation: characteristics of change, local characteristics and external factors
(government and other agencies). They identified different stakeholders in local, and
federal and governmental levels. They also identified characterizations of change to
each stakeholder and the issues that each stakeholder should consider before
committing a change effort or rejecting it.
Characteristics of Change Local Factors External Factors
Characteristics of Change
Local Factors
External Factors
Need of change
The school
district
Board of
community
Complexity: the
extent of change
required to those
responsible for
implementation
Principal
Teacher
Government
and other
agencies
Quality and
practicality of the
program
Continuation
Continuation is a decision about institutionalization of an innovation based on the
reaction to the change, which may be negative or positive. Continuation depends on
whether or not:
1. The change gets embedded/built into the structure (through
policy/budget/timetable)
2. The change has generated a critical mass of administrators or teachers who are
skilled and committed to
3. The change has established procedures for continuing assistance
Outcome
Attention to the following perspectives on the change process may support the
achievement of a positive or successful change outcome:
1. Active initiation & participation: change does not end in recognizing or initial
context with the innovation, but starts with the contact and evolves along with
the continuous interaction with it and the environmental changes that it brings
forth
2. Pressure, support and negotiation
7. Connection with the wider environment is critical for success: change should
recognize a broader context, to which change asserts its constant action.
8. Every person is a change agent: " It is only by individuals taking action to alter
their own environments that there is any change for deep change."
Fullan (1993) provided suggestions of elements that successful change requires:
The ability to work with polar opposites: imposition of change vs. self-learning;
planning vs. uncertainty; problems vs. creative resolution; vision vs. fixed
direction; individual vs. groups; centralizing vs. decentralizing; personal
change vs. system change
Dynamic interdependency of state accountability and local autonomy
Combination of individuals and societal agencies
Internal connection within oneself and within one's organization and external
connections to others and to the environment
Fullan (1999) pointed out the importance of the recognition that the educational
change process is complex. To deal with such complexity is not to control the change,
but to guide it. Fullan provides eight new lessons about guiding change.
1. Moral purpose is complex and problematic
2. Theories of education and theories of change need each other
3. Conflict and diversity are our friends
4. Understanding the meaning of operating on the edge of chaos
5. Emotional intelligence is anxiety provoking and anxiety containing
6. Collaborative cultures are anxiety provoking and anxiety containing
7. Attack incoherence connectedness and knowledge creation are critical
8. There is no single solution. Craft your own theories and actions by being a
critical consumer.
References:
Ellsworth, J. B. (2000). Surviving changes: A survey of Educational change models.
Syracuse, NY: ERIC Clearinghouse.
Fullan, M. (1982). The meaning of educational change. New York: Teachaers College
Press.
Fullan, M. G. (1993). The complexity of the change process. In Change forces:
Probing the depth of educational reform, pp. 19-41. Falme Press.
Fullan, M. G. (1999). Change Forces: The sequel. Philadelphia, PA: Falmer Press.
Fullan, M., & Stiegelbauer, S. (1991). The new meaning of educational change. 2nd
ed. New York: Teachers College Press.
Rogers' Diffusion of Innovation
Fullan's Educational Change
Ely's Conditions of Changes
Ely (1990) referred conditions of changes to the factors in the environment that
affects the implementation in the change process. When the implementation plan to
launch out innovation is carefully crafted to satisfy all the perceived attributes that
facilitate the rate of adoption, what else can make the adoption easier or impede the
adoption? This is exactly the question that Ely's Conditions of Changes intend to
answer.
Ely (1999) listed eight conditions that should exist or be created in the environment
where in the innovation is implemented to facilitate its adoption:
1. Dissatisfaction with the status quo: the precondition for people to accept a
change is that they perceive a needs to change the environment. Perception of
such needs usually is revealed in people's dissatisfaction of the existing
methods, products, or programs. Understanding of the cause of the
dissatisfaction and identifying who has dissatisfaction can help the change
agent to communicate the innovation to the adopters in a more effective way.
References:
Ely, D. P. (1990). Conditions that facilitate the implementation of educational
technology innovations. Journal of Research on Computing in Education, 23 (2), 298305.
Ely, D. P. (1999). New perspectives on the implementation of educational technology
innovation.
Rogers' Diffusion of Innovation
Fullan's Educational Change
Ely's Conditions of Changes