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Davies, Brent & Ellison, Linda. (2003). The New
Strategic Direction and Development of the School: Key Frameworks
for School Improvement Planning. New York: RoutledgeFalmer,
Taylor & Francis Group
191 pp.
$37.95 (Paper) ISBN 0-415-26993-8
Reviewed by Linda R. Vogel
University of Northern Colorado
November 9, 2004
The second edition of Davies and Ellison’s
book comes at a time that “informed prescription” of
state political reforms must be blended with “informed
professional judgment” at the local level, as pointed out
by David Hopkins in his introduction to this second edition. The
frameworks developed by Davies and Ellison blend a heightened
awareness of external social and political pressures in terms of
resources and expectations with a need for school leaders to take
control and responsibility for authentic school improvement
planning and the realization of change.
Rather than concentrating on detailed, long-term
plans, the authors advocate and guide school leaders through
methods of developing futures perspectives through dialogues with
various stakeholders. Strategic analysis of various stakeholder
concerns and needs, as well as resources and capabilities form
the foundation of short-term (1-2 year) plans that lay the
foundation for strategic planning and strategy. They delineate
between strategic planning that spans 3-5 years and the need for
a school strategy that spans 7-10 years. Both are seen as
flexible but guided by a strategic intent that focuses on the
needs of students as they emerge from their structured
educational experiences. The flexibility of these frameworks
encompass the iterative and complex process of organizational
change, as well as environmental and resource realities. Each of
these elements are outlined in the introduction and explained in
detail in Chapters 2 through 5. Chapters 6 through 8 provide
examples of how an elementary, secondary, and LEA have
utilized—and customized—the frameworks for school
improvement planning outlined.
Chapter 2 explains the process for developing a
futures perspective. While recognizing that it isn’t
realistic to write a “formal futures plan,” the
authors recommend “futures thinking” developed
through “futures dialogue” in order to “build a
‘futures perspective’” in a school (p. 7). The
goal of a futures perspective “involves agreeing and living
a set of values as a benchmark and building a set of learning
skills so that opportunities can be shaped and taken rather than
the school being the victim of unforeseen changes and events (p.
8). This requires the leadership capacity to identify the
contexts in which change forces develop. These contexts include
the following: economic and social contexts, educational reform,
‘educational business,’ tensions between autonomy and
recentralization, technology, use and misuse of information,
nature and range of schools and their specialist characteristics,
the nature of learning, roles and patterns of staffing, location
and timing of learning, and the nature of equity in education.
Each change context is discussed in detail with many insightful
observations, such as the need for schools to provide social
capital that once was provided by families and the emphasis on
information, communication, and technology skills resulting form
the shift to finance capitalism. Finally, reengineering, left and
right brain thinking, and the Sigmoid curve are suggested as
means for leaders to change mindsets of staff and stakeholders. A
brainstorming activity and futures schematic framework are given
to provide structure to futures dialogue among senior team
members.
A discussion of how strategic intent is to be
developed and used to guide strategic planning opens Chapter 3.
Helpful explanations of the most effective context and necessary
degree of capacity for each stage and approach are included.
Strategic planning is suggested when “there is a low to
medium rate of change and the school can understand, react to and
cope with that change” (p. 37). Emergent strategy is viewed
as a reactive approach to change and intrapreneurship assumes a
“high degree of turbulence in the system and that the
centre of the organization does not have the understanding to
plan in a detailed way” (p.39). Strategic intent applies
the most consistently to educational leaders who want to
establish “achievable, but significantly challenging
activities that ‘leverage up; the organization to perform
at much high levels….developing a ‘success and high
achievement culture’” (p.39). Templates are provided
for developing both strategic intent and strategic planning, with
a clear delineation between capacity and capability in each
planning stage. Strategic intent and three- to five-year
strategic plans involve the development of capability of using
available resources to achieve a goal. Strategic plans include
learning outcomes, the support for the quality of the learning
and teaching processes, leadership and management arrangements,
and resource and structural issues.
Obtaining strategic data from the social,
technological, educational, economic, and political environment;
analyzing, interpreting, and integrating that data into useful
information; and exploration of desirable options are discussed
in Chapter 4. The importance of dialogue with all stakeholders is
stressed. Lists of pertinent information that could impact the
school in each of the data source areas are given to guide
leaders in their collection of relevant data. Tips are also given
on conducting interviews and focus groups, questionnaires and
attitude surveys, monitoring and evaluating reports, and
obtaining additional data from secondary sources, such as
national statistics and research projects. The Boston Consulting
Group matrix, comparative stakeholder analysis, and SWOT
(strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis are
described to assist leaders in making sense of the data they have
collected, as well as a method of feasibility assessment for
strategic change.
Short-term change is the focus of Chapter 5. The
basic elements to be identified in such a plan include specifying
detailed outcomes, involving stakeholders, prioritizing tasks and
focusing, allocating responsibilities, allocating resources,
facilitating change, communicating, monitoring, annual reviewing
and evaluating, external accountability, and recognition. The
authors stress setting realistic and achievable targets and the
need for a coherent articulation of key stages and overall
priorities among stakeholders. School leaders are encouraged to
develop a whole-school action plan, as well as to have area
leaders (whether by grade or subject) develop area action plans.
Individual staff members should also develop action plans that
coordinate and support the area and whole-school plans.
Chapters 6 through 8 provide a relatively detailed
view of how three different schools utilized Davies’ and
Ellison’s frameworks to work through the school improvement
process. Clear in each model is a commitment to the
process of improvement and a futures perspective. Each
example is not a prescriptive application of the frameworks but
rather a customization to fit each schools’ specific
culture and context. Artifacts such as mission statements and
philosophies, future dialogue documentation, strategic intent
statements, and strategic plans are very clear guides to school
leaders who wish to apply the frameworks in their own learning
environment.
This second edition of The New Strategic
Direction and Development of the School provides guidance to
busy leaders of educational change without being prescriptive. It
is written for the practitioner who wants to make authentic and
thoughtful improvements in his or her organization. The
frameworks and timelines explained throughout the book are quite
valuable and are supported by the guiding questions for
developing a future’s perspective and dialogue. The authors
recognize that there are no “quick fixes” to the
complex challenges facing the education leader today, but they
provide usable tools to examine the present and respond
proactively to those challenges in both the short and long
terms.
About the Reviewer
Linda R. Vogel
Assistant Professor
University of Northern Colorado
Educational Leadership and Policy Studies Division
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