ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the potential of the learning organization for education. Can the ideas developed pre-eminently by Schön (1973), Senge (1990, 1999) and Argyris (1993, 1999) help heads and teachers transcend policy and institutional constraints, and stimulate them to find new and better ways to enhance outcomes? Can individuals and schools recreate themselves as learning organizations, able to build their capacity for change and improvement, as well as increase their bottom-line results? As there are few real-life empirical examples of successful learning organizations (Infed 2007), this chapter also investigates the case of The Shire School to discover the extent to which the promise of Senge’s (1990) The Fifth Discipline can be realized in an educational setting.
