Education reform and educational policy: Psychological aspects of interdisciplinary knowledge

Abstract

The article is consecrated to defining a continuum of concepts that refer to “reform” as a category of “change” in order to broaden their accessibility to inter- and trans-disciplinary studies, as well as to strengthen the professional boundaries of psychological knowledge. The objectives of the study are 1) to outline a continuum of concepts of interdisciplinary knowledge regarding reform, currently in the field of education; 2) to determine the sphere of competencies of psychology in their interpretation and application in explaining the phenomena of sociopsychological origin, education reform in particular. The methodology of the study developed in the field of the poly-cross-inter- and trans-disciplinary context of the theoretical study of the assets of different scientific disciplines regarding the continuum of concepts of the “change” category. Comparative analysis of the concepts such as modernization, transformation (optimization, and rationalization), reform and policy (in the sphere of education), novation, newness, and innovation, as well as change and change management are most fully presented in the article. It is proved that scientific opinion has only partially mastered the poly and cross-disciplinary aspect of research. It is argued that transition to the interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary approach to the study of social change will provide a scientific integration basis for addressing the significant social issues such as reform, for the time being in the sphere of education. It is proved that the application of the theory of innovation diffusion to address the issues of reforming education (as a social innovation) can serve as a mechanism to overcome its historically fixed failure, regardless of the country of application. The practical significance of this analysis presented: 1) in the division of the authorities between the meta (sectoral ministry) and the meso-, as well as the micro-levels (community and schools) in implementing educational reforms; 2) in determining the value of changing the mechanisms in relation to the different systemic levels of promotion of the reform; 3) dispelling the myth of inviolability of the phenomenon of resistance in the processes of innovative development. These same aspects will make up the social significance of the study presented in this article. The originality of the research work is formed by a combination of poly-cross-inter and trans-disciplinary approaches in the study of a complex social phenomenon – which is currently the reform in the sphere of education. Cross-disciplinary should be considered as a promising direction for further studies of complex social phenomena