ABSTRACT
Restructuring of school systems has been taking place in much of the world over the last ten years. This chapter presents a brief exposition on restructuring per se, and the nature and form it has taken within an international, Australian and specifically WA context. The multi-dimensional nature of restructuring has spawned many complex policy issues. American scholars recognize a shift from behavioural psychology, which has been the source of thinking underpinning the traditional industrial model of schooling, to social cognitive or constructivist psychology as the inspiration for a new model of learning and teaching in the post-industrial information society. Community and parental inexperience and feelings of inadequacy in relation to participation in school affairs, and changes in the tasks and roles of principals and teachers would suggest that the achievement of self-governing schools is likely to be a long, challenging and evolutionary process.
