Sustainable change

When a system of inquiry that is focused on improving outcomes is embedded into educators’ practice, the result is “sustainable change”, also referred to in the literature by other terms, such as “sustainable improvement” (Reid, 2004) and “continuous improvement” (Fullan, 2005).

[Sustainable improvement] is enduring, not evanescent … Sustainable improvement demands committed relationships, not fleeting infatuation. It is change for keeps and change for good.

Reid, 2004, page 19

Sustainability is about the capacity of an individual, organisation, or system to learn, to change and improve, and to maintain and build on the improvements that have been made. In education, the focus is on changes that lead to sustained improvements in student outcomes.

Fullan (2007) explains that educational change may take place at any level of the system. He identifies three aspects of change, which he relates, for the sake of simplicity, to the classroom.

There are at least three components or dimensions at stake in implementing any new program or policy: (1) the possible use of new or revised materials (instructional resources such as new curriculum materials or technologies), (2) the possible use of new teaching approaches (that is, new teaching strategies or activities), and (3) the possible alteration of beliefs (for example, pedagogical assumptions and theories underlying particular new policies or programs).

page 30

For change to be sustained, the change process needs to address all three aspects.

The use of new materials by themselves may accomplish certain educational objectives, but it seems obvious that developing new teaching skills and approaches and understanding conceptually what and why something should be done, and to what end, represents much more fundamental change, and as such will take longer to achieve but will have a greater impact once accomplished.

page 36

Fullan argues that most reform strategies focus on structures, formal requirements, and event-based strategies and “do not struggle directly with existing cultures within which new values and practices may be required” (page 25). Because of this, they fail to provide the opportunity for the “reculturing” needed for sustainable change.

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