This paper presents a model of capacity development for public organizations in post-conflict settings. The paper reveals the challenges faced by the author as a "change agent" who tried to understand and develop the basic capacity of the Literacy Department of the Ministry of Education in Afghanistan. The author used an action-research…

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…

This paper is based on a study conducted in 2014 that aimed to learn more about teachers' experiences of the recent political and economical changes in Greece and the new challenges that stem from these, as well as teachers' perceptions of the possibilities for the future. This study attempted to seek out possibilities of hope, particularly those…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to understand the nature of staff/employee (i.e. learning and teaching, curriculum support and administrative staff) perceptions, anxieties and worries about early merger change in the UK further education (FE) sector. Design/Methodology/Approach: Survey data were collected from 128 out of 562 employees to…

This study examines the institutional histories of Loma Verde University and Azul City University and their development over time into Hispanic-Serving Institutions. Utilizing a theoretical framework of transformational change, we focus on various aspects of these institutions, including curriculum, the allocation of physical spaces, and the…

School district central offices regularly engage with external partners in improvement efforts, but these partnerships are not always productive. Indeed, little is known about under what conditions partnerships are likely to lead to organizational learning outcomes. We conducted a longitudinal comparative case study of two departments in one urban…

This account of practice outlines how action learning was used as the key component of a leadership development initiative for managers in an acute hospital setting. It explains how the initiative was conceived, why action learning was chosen and how action learning principles were incorporated. Insights into the outcomes and considerations for…

Using the case of the Hong Kong Polytechnic (HKP), this paper examines academic drift in colonial settings. The HKP, like polytechnics in the UK, was supposedly a service sector institution. Under the binary system in the UK, schools in the service division were governed by the state educational bureaucracy, while the universities--the autonomous…

This article uses the notion of a "sensitising concept" in order to understand insider and outsider dynamics in cross-organisational field research. The analysis is based on a study of learning and innovation in the social and health care educations in Denmark. As these educations combine classroom training and workplace internships, the…

Since the implementation of the Pre-primary Education Voucher Scheme (PEVS) in 2007, its built-in quality assurance mechanism has brought about subtle changes in the work relationship between kindergarten (KG) principals and teachers. The increasing demand for accountability and the call for improvement in the quality of pre-school education are…

This article describes the implementation of an initiative to encourage voluntary school district mergers in Vermont. The law was intended to increase educational opportunities for Vermont students while reducing costs. Three research activities were conducted to understand how districts and supervisory unions around the state responded to the new…

The article engages with the opportunities and constraints raised by embedded research during times of rapid and extensive organisational change. Embedded research is an increasingly common approach for funding PhD studentships. The rapid and extensive reforms of the English public sector pose significant and underexplored challenges for embedded…

This article analyses and critiques the discourse around widening participation in elite universities in the UK. One response, from both university administrators and academics, has been to see this as an 'intractable' problem which can at best be ameliorated through outreach or marginal work in admissions policy. Another has been to reject the…

This study investigated teachers' cynicism toward a major education transformation blueprint and their job satisfaction with a sample of 628 practising teachers. Participants were practising teachers in primary (n = 326) and secondary (n = 302) schools located in a school district in Malaysia. A self-reporting questionnaire was used, where the…

To determine how academic library leaders make decisions about their organization's future and how they effect changes, the author interviewed 44 university librarians and deans from institutions belonging to the Association of American Universities (AAU). The author analyzed the interviews using content analysis to identify the most frequent…