Publisher's Synopsis
This volume highlights a success story in creating an effective school and presents a model of change readily applicable to other schools and countries. Most of us have read the story of Hansel & Gretel, most of us believe the witch was wicked, but have we ever debated this issue? Through an entertaining description in his introduction, of the teaching of this well-known fairy tale, Marvin Wideen draws the reader along a path of education reform in Lakeview School, Canada, and how, by this process of reform the school changed from within. He considers the ideology supporting educational change, what change means to those who undertake it, and how that experience relates to the larger social, political picture.;He contends that the teacher remains central to the process of reform in schools; having often discovered that educational reform often fails to address issues which matter to teaching staff and principals-those actually responsible for implementing change.;With the focus on educational reforms, this volume looks at the process of change arising from local conditions and developments within the big picture of sociopolitical processes (in an individual school in 1986). It demonstrates that change creates anxiety, needs careful implementation, and occurs in isolation or as a result of activity within a larger picture.
