ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates the nature of change in the schools and relates it to the drive for improvement evident throughout the UK education system and to the rapidly emerging Information and Communications Technologies. Schools must change to adapt to those shifting circumstances around them that impinge upon their ability to perform their functions. This requires senior managers to exercise their professional judgement, firstly in identifying just which changes are significant in this regard and secondly in avoiding reacting to passing fads. The rapid introduction of technology-related changes in all parts of our lives, including work, entertainment, and shopping, poses a challenge to the education system. Leadership within the education service, especially but not only in the schools themselves, has not grasped the management issues involved in the changes teachers are facing. The mainspring in the quest for change is the desire to improve teachers' education service. The basis for achieving this change is professional development.
