Implementation can never be taken for granted- p. 241. Fowler goes on to say that educators need to be actively engaged in the implementation process, as their jobs are heavily tied to policy implementation.
Who are the players?
-Formal- government officials
-Intermediaries- formal implementer delegates responsibility-- will and capacity of intermediaries is what affects successful policy implementation
Reasons why implementations cannot work in educational policy? Implementation is difficult!
- didn't understand change
- didn't know how to use new pedagogy
- materials needed to establish open classrooms not available
- culture of institution not consistent with new policy
- teachers became discouraged and lost motivation
Examples from 1984 study by Hiberman and Miles- p. 247
Highly successful implementations-- administrators deeply committed to new program. new policy fit with institution
Relatively successful-- crusading atmosphere among teachers-- helped each other
relatively unsuccessful- supportive at first, offered little assistance
failures- poorly designed and leaders never really interested in implementation
With implementation, there needs to be a good amount of cognitive dissonance-- people use their previous experiences and learning to develop new schemas, but it's hard to bring something new into that schema. They want to understand bast on past experiences, and it is up to the leaders to lead the charge to help teachers and others to learn new schemas.
Scaling up-- deliberate expansion of externally developed school-restructuring design that previously has been used successfully in smaller settings.
--internal and structural changes the hardest. culture of many schools does not support collaborative in the way that many reforms require. external challenges also exist with testing and individual state mandates schools must adhere to.
How to implement a new policy?
Mobilization
Must answer three key questions in the affirmative:
Do we have good reasons for adopting a new policy?
Is the policy appropriate for our school or district?
Does the policy we are considering have sufficient support among key state holders?
Planning for implementation
Planning is essential-- and whether is is a large or small steering committee, it must include building principals and teachers.
Forward mapping
Money-- most policies supported through grants
Time
Personnel-- espeically a project director or coordinator
Space
Equipment and Materials
Stages of Implementation
Early-- first months will be rough. be careful in deciding to midgetizing-- by making some of the policy changes smaller, one can make it less worthwhile and meaningful.
Late-- depends on if early was successful. Decide what works, what doesn't, and eliminate the ineffective components and replace with more effective ones.
Cross-cutting themes- monitoring and feedback, ongoing assistance, coping with problems
Resistance-- self-interest, conflicts with professional values-- exit, voice, and disloyalty
Coping with resistance is key!!!
Under final points, Fowler argues that there is no excuse for failure. But then why does it still happen if we have the tools?
As you think about the resistance to implementation, think how you've seen this in your own practice and what might help decrease this resistance? We see barriers to new processes put up all the time--think about the campus wide curriculum review!
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