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1 - Introduction

Until the Miracle Arrives, We Can Learn from Others

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 February 2025

Colleen McLaughlin
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Alan Ruby
Affiliation:
University of Pennsylvania
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Summary

One reason for assembling another collection of essays on examples of how education reforms were implemented is to see if different resource levels and different political and national histories produce and demand different reform strategies. Another is to highlight the tension between rational approaches to education reform and the participatory or democratic approaches which emphasise context and the views of practitioners and stakeholders. A third reason is to highlight some of the assumptions about individual behaviours embedded in the rational and participatory approaches to reform. The ten cases presented here have been chosen and shaped by these three rationales. They also highlight some of the themes drawn from the first set of cases about continuity, consistency and coherence, adding to the stock of knowledge about models and approaches to the design and enactment of reforms including logic models and gradualism.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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