ABSTRACT

Out of recognition of this failure came a new improvement paradigm of the early 1980s, still reflected in much of the current writing on school improvement. This new orientation took a ‘bottom-up’ approach to school improvement, in which improvement attempts were ‘owned’ by those within schools, although outside consultants or experts could offer knowledge for possible use. This approach tended to celebrate practical practitioner knowledge rather than that gathered from research, and focused upon changes to educational processes rather than to school management, or to organisational features which were regarded as reified constructs. The outcomes or goals of school improvement programmes were opened up for debate and discussion, rather than merely accepted as given. Those working within school improvement also chose qualitative and naturalistically oriented evaluations of the enterprise rather than quantitative measurements, and improvement attempts were ‘whole-school’ oriented and school based, rather than outside-school or course based.