ABSTRACT
Social changes raise challenging issues about what and who schools are for, the structure of school systems, the adequacy and use of resources available to schools, links between school systems and other institutions in society, and the capacity of schools to adapt appropriately to social change. Social change is seen as a background factor affecting their ability to carry out the primary task. Some districts engaged in some learning about social change some of the time. Where social change was recognized as raising important issues for schools, the systems tended to use existing practices or strategies rather than thinking through the nature of the challenge and the kinds of responses that might be most appropriate. The literature on organizational learning concentrates on change as a general phenomenon occurring in individual organizations. Educators might think of themselves as engaged in a process of finding a future for schools. Their educational task is to harmonize social change and their evolving educational purposes.
