Politics, Ecology and Drift: Change in Teacher Education

Abstract

Change in educational systems is a highly complex yet barely understood phenom enon ; and this is particularly true of teacher training institutions (TTIs). My central argument is that the complexity of change is a function of the political and ecological environments in which educational change occurs. Unfortunately contemporary attempts to conceptualise educational change have in the main failed to take account of the culture within which educational institutions are em bedded and within which their members act. This myopia has led to models and characterisations of change that bear little relationship to empirical reality. There is consequently a need for theories of educational change which take into account the ecological and political environments in which change takes place, and which also reflect the reality of those involved in the change process itself. In short, there is a need for theories of change which are applicable to and within situations. Drift is the name given to one such theory: and this paper presents drift as a sub stantive theory of organisational change in TTIs.