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…

In a recent publication, Senge ("All systems go: the change imperative for whole system reform." Corwin Press, Thousand Oaks, 2010, x) stated "at no time in history has there been a more powerful need for a new vision of the purpose of education." Increasingly citizens, academics and practitioners are calling for radical…

Organizational development (OD) can be of value as a professional development tool in the school, especially where it can broaden the perspective of the teacher so that he can conceptualize the school as an organization with various related units working to achieve the same goal, see more clearly his place in the total educational program of the…

In a recent experience in the Manitoba provincial government, an active, varied, and largely homegrown system-wide "open systems" approach for the design and delivery of staff development and training became operational in only 18 months. The development and implementation of the strategy and some significant results are recounted.…

The third of a five-volume series, this volume consists of two empirical studies of organization development (OD) in school systems. Part 1 reports on information gathered from over 300 OD consultants in the United States and Canada regarding job title, work base, sex, geographical region, type of training, and nature and extent of OD work in…

The organization and funding of exceptional students in the Ontario education system are the focus of the document. Background on the Ontario school system's organization and financial structure is related. It is explained that a major change has been to reduce the number of school boards from 4,187 in 1955 to just 200 in 1974. The average of…

One of a series of papers devoted to new ideas in education, this study reflects on the question of educational change. Specifically, changes in secondary education in Canada which appear relevant to the emergence of operating systems of continuing education are described. The first part of the study examines the principles of educational…

This volume, the fourth of a five-volume series, contains three onsite case studies of organization development (OD) selected from a sample of 76 school districts. The purpose of the case studies was to analyze in detail different types of OD programs and their use. Each case study represents a different OD focus: case study A involves a survey…