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Descriptors:
Community Colleges; Sustainability; Two Year Colleges; Higher Education; Rural Schools; Case Studies; Change Agents; Access to Education; Organizational Change; Economic Development

Abstract:
This assessment considers the sustainability of initiatives begun as a result of participation in the Rural Community College Initiative (RCCI). Case studies were conducted at eight community colleges, and quantitative data was gathered from the U.S. Census, the Department of Labor, and the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). Elements that helped the colleges sustain initiatives beyond the funding cycle are discussed. (Contains 3 figures.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Higher Education; Organizational Change; Psychology; Organizational Culture; Resistance to Change; Change Strategies; Change Agents

Abstract:
In this paper, the author draws upon his interest, as a psychotherapist, in working with change at a psychological and individual level, and on his experience of the radical changes currently taking place in higher education, specifically the University where he manages several services, including a Counselling Service. Through leading and facilitating workshops, he has had many opportunities to speak to those at the heart of change, and to observe and think about the variety of responses to organisational change. His focus is on change within higher education, though the principles he discusses--what he refers to as the 3Cs (Context, Communication and Commiseration)--have a much wider application. In some cases, those leading the change will be external "professional" change managers--unfamiliar with the culture of the institution and the attitudes and values of its staff. They will carry out a time-limited project and then move on, leaving others to deal with the changed situation. As such, they may be detached from, and uninterested in, the background and psychological reactions of staff. Alternatively, they may be embedded within the institution and within teams; they may know staff well and may be consulted about the changes and help design them, introduce them, and see them through. This paper addresses this latter group of people. (Contains 4 figures.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Foreign Countries; Transformative Learning; Adult Education; Environmental Education; Science History; Ecology; Group Behavior; Social Change; Case Studies; Biographies; Reputation; North Americans; Scientists; Wildlife; Death; Conservation (Environment); Poisoning; Consciousness Raising; Genetics; Racial Discrimination; Change Agents

Abstract:
This historical study identifies catalysts for transformative learning in the lives of three scientist-environmentalists important to the 20th-century environmental movement: Aldo Leopold, Rachel Carson, and David Suzuki. Following a brief review of theoretical perspectives on transformative learning, the article argues that transformative learning for these scientists was catalyzed by certain "disorienting dilemmas" and was both rational and emotional. Moreover, the personal transformative learning of each scientist helped provoke a process of transformative learning in society at large: Leopold's contribution to the founding of the disciplines of wildlife conservation and restoration ecology, and his "land ethic" fostered the development an ecological consciousness in the 1940s; Carson's "Silent Spring" helped provoke the environmental consciousness of the 1960s; and Suzuki's public environmental education and activism from the 1970s to the present-day played an influential role in North American environmental movement. Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Foreign Countries; Educational Change; Secondary Education; Teacher Participation; Unions; Change Agents

Abstract:
The countries of Latin America have been no exception to global calls for educational transformation and teacher professionalization at the secondary level. One of the newest of these reforms is Mexico's Reforma de la Educacion Secundaria (RS) (Reform of Secondary Education), launched in 2006. This article examines portrayals by various actors of the nature and extent of the participation of both teachers and the teachers' union in the different phases of the RS, beginning with the initial formulation of the reform through the implementation and the "follow-up." Findings indicate that in spite of efforts to provide more transparency and opportunities for teacher participation, for the most part secondary teachers in Mexico neither felt like agents nor partners in the RS, nor did they function as such in the reform process. As in previous reform efforts, teachers mostly felt that they were recipients of plans formulated by government officials, and as a result many have evidenced neither complete compliance nor full commitment to the reform. The national teachers' union, meanwhile, claims to represent teachers' voices and thus a form of teacher participation, but this claim is denied in the findings. The discussion and conclusions emphasize the multiple significations of teacher "participation" and the need to overcome system-wide contradictions, while drawing on theory about the conditioned state, bureaucracy, and democratizing civil society to help situate and explain the findings. Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Foreign Countries; Developing Nations; Behavior Change; Smoking; Intervention; Behavior Modification; Pilot Projects; School Policy; School Personnel; Adolescents; Social Environment; Change Agents; Teacher Role; Public School Teachers; Health Promotion; Prevention; Health Behavior; Health Education; Public Health; Program Development; Program Descriptions; Program Implementation

Abstract:
This article provides a theory-based, step-by-step approach to intervention development and illustrates its application in India to design an intervention to promote tobacco-use cessation among school personnel in Bihar. We employed a five-step approach to develop the intervention using the Social Contextual Model of Health Behavior Change (SCM) in Bihar, which involved conducting formative research, classifying factors in the social environment as mediating mechanisms and modifying conditions, developing a creative brief, designing an intervention and refining the intervention based on pilot test results. The intervention engages users and non-users of tobacco, involves teachers in implementing and monitoring school tobacco control policies and maximizes teachers' role as change agents in schools and communities. Intervention components include health educator visits, discussions led by lead teachers, cessation assistance, posters and other educational materials and is implemented over the entire academic year. The intervention is being tested in Bihar government schools as part of a randomized-controlled trial. SCM was a useful framework for developing a tobacco control intervention that responded to teachers' lives in Bihar. Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Academic Achievement; Self Efficacy; School Personnel; Change Agents; Educational Change; Economic Status; Parent Participation; Parent School Relationship; Socioeconomic Status; Individual Characteristics; Low Income Groups; Principals; Interviews; Language Proficiency; Parent Role; Biculturalism

Abstract:
The relationship between bicultural parents, low socio-economic parents and the public school system is made tenuous in large part by cultural disparities between school officials and parents. The greater the disparity, the more likely parent groups are to be silenced and the more likely they are to refrain from the role of change agents or advocates for school reform. To contemplate what it takes for these disadvantaged parent groups to enact changes they desire at the school or district level, this study culls from research on in several areas of academic literature: parent involvement and student achievement, community organizing, and change management. Each of these areas of research offers insights on how success change is enacted; the characteristics and the attributes groups must have in order to bring about desired changes to processes and outcomes. Parent leaders and principals from low socio-economic status considered to be change agents in their community were interviewed. Their insights reinforce the literature, commenting on the nature of relationship parents and school and the nature of change. Open-ended questions relating to the nature of changes undertaken, the efficacy of tactics employed, and perceived deficit thinking on the part of parents and school personnel are addressed. Results indicated that self-efficacy and competence in the English language are key characteristics of parent groups with high levels of engagement. Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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 ERIC Full Text (271K)

Descriptors:
Higher Education; Quality Assurance; Institutional Evaluation; Vocational Education; Foreign Countries; Change Agents; Educational Change; Program Evaluation; Accreditation (Institutions); Outcomes of Education; Total Quality Management; Influences; Evaluation Methods; Educational Legislation; Federal Legislation

Abstract:
Post-secondary education institutions in Taiwan are divided into two tracks, general higher education (HE) and technological and vocational education (TVE). The evaluation of all universities/colleges is mandated by the University Act. Higher education institutions receive mandated institutional evaluation every six years and program evaluation every five years. The purpose of this paper is to briefly introduce the status of higher education institutional and program evaluations in Taiwan as well as the emerging roles of the Higher Education Evaluation and Accreditation Council of Taiwan (HEEACT). Both institutional and program evaluations are accreditation-oriented, adopting the PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) cycle with an emphasis on institutional and program self-positioning, student learning outcome, and mechanism for continuous improvement. As the third-party planner and implementer of higher education institutional and program evaluations, HEEACT has conducted internal and external assessments as well as entrusted third-party meta-evaluation to assure its quality of work. Faced with the emerging challenges, such as the Ministry of Education's new policy on requiring some universities/colleges to implement self-conducted external evaluation in replacement of the third-party program evaluation, HEEACT has to alter its roles and becomes a Critical Friend of higher education institutions and programs, a Change Agent of higher education institutional and program evaluation, and an Effective Facilitator of the international exchanges and cooperation on quality assurance and mutual recognitions of national qualifications. (Contains 3 figures.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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 ERIC Full Text (88K)

Descriptors:
Leadership Styles; Females; Males; Hypothesis Testing; Gender Differences; Promotion (Occupational); Feedback (Response); Leadership; Measures (Individuals); Interpersonal Communication; Teamwork; Empowerment; Trust (Psychology); Coaching (Performance); Change Agents; Facilitators (Individuals); Responsibility; Employees; Participative Decision Making; Recognition (Achievement); Social Distance; Self Evaluation (Individuals)

Abstract:
In this study, researchers used a customized 360-degree method to examine the frequency with which 1,546 men and 721 women leaders perceived themselves and were perceived by colleagues as using 10 relational and 10 task-oriented leadership behaviors, as addressed in the Management-Leadership Practices Inventory (MLPI). As hypothesized, men and women leaders, as well as their supervisors, employees, and peers, perceived women leaders to employ nine of the 10 relational leadership behaviors significantly more frequently than men leaders. Additionally, the employees' perceptions of their women leaders' use of task-oriented behaviors were significantly higher when compared to similar assessments from the employees of men leaders. However, the leaders as well as their supervisors and peers perceived men and women leaders' use of task-oriented behaviors as approximately equal. Broader implications of these findings are discussed. (Contains 1 table.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Community Education; Community Schools; Parent Participation; Age Differences; Indigenous Knowledge; Expertise; Elementary Schools; Creativity; Listening; Transformative Learning; Change Agents; Constructivism (Learning); Proximity; Time

Abstract:
Family-focused community education implies a relational pedagogy, whereby people of different ages and experiences, including children, engage interdependently in the education of selves and others. Educational projects grow out of lived experiences and relationships, evolving in dynamic conditions of community self-organisation and self-expression, however partial and approximate, as opposed to habitual and repetitive actions. In developing educational activities through radical listening, community educators aim to reflect the character of the neighbourhood and build on local knowledge and expertise. The paper reports on ways in which one community school invited, encouraged and supported children as co-educators through projects that promoted collaborative leadership and unfolded, rather than being delivered through planned and scripted lessons. These were creative projects of cultural significance, characterised by attentive listening and aiming to promote intergenerational conversation. Through such transformative projects children emerged as educators by acting as catalysts of change, as cultural producers and as conversationalists, as did their parents and other members of the school community. The paper concludes that community co-education ideas should be re-visited to breathe new life into educational and social actions today. Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Higher Education; Organizational Development; Foreign Countries; Change Agents; Department Heads; Administrator Role; Role Conflict; Group Dynamics; Performance Technology; Job Simplification; Organizational Change; Institutional Characteristics; Case Studies; Program Descriptions

Abstract:
This article provides a detailed description and analysis of how one Canadian institution used groups of department heads as change agents to address their most acute department head role tensions. It is demonstrated that this institution's change initiative aligned very closely to the recommendations proposed, in both the literature pertaining to organizational development in a higher education context, and the broader organization development literature regarding the use of groups as agents of change. In conclusion, it is suggested that how work is broken down and structured into various groups can facilitate the change process, that enabling and engaging the change targets as change agents may be of value, and that institutions may benefit by broadly increasing member knowledge, competencies and experience with team work, team dynamics and an understanding of how groups can successfully be used as agents of change. Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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