Evolution in educational change: A literature review of the historical core of the Journal of Educational Change

Abstract

This literature review explored educational change trends as reflected in the first 15 years of the Journal of Educational Change (JEC), from 2000 to 2014. The examination of 52 articles accounting for 61% of the Journal’s historical citations indicated that the JEC has evolved through five periods, which relate to ‘waves of educational change’ beyond the Journal itself. At the center of this development there has been a process of de-centering of Anglo-American perspectives on educational reform, pushed both by an increasing pessimism among U.S. and U.K. scholars regarding their countries’ reforms and by systematic evidence that other educational systems are achieving better student learning outcomes. The aforementioned evolution also shows a shift from more conceptual works by the field’s historical leaders toward more empirical research conducted by emergent scholars. After discussing the predominant concept of educational change, the major silences in the reviewed literature, and what this evolution in the JEC says about the field of educational change at large, the paper ends reflecting on challenges as a new generation of scholars begins to enter the conversation.