ABSTRACT
In the earlier discussion of the ‘epidemic’ of educational change, it became clear that against a background of continuing change, expectations for student achievement seem to rise beyond the capacity of the system to deliver. It has also been argued that authentic school improvement as a strategy for educational change holds some potential for closing this gap. Any prospect for raising standards of learning and achievement however, must be regarded as extremely fragile unless school improvement strategies are designed to accommodate the complexity of educational change. Two perspectives on this complexity that have a major influence on the design of authentic school improvement strategies are considered in this chapter.
