The collapse of communism and the adoption of parliamentary democracy led to rapid and dramatic educational change in countries formerly under the control of the Soviet Union. Leaders of the affected countries acknowledged the need to develop educational systems during the rebuilding process and embraced this transformation in a short period of time. This has provided researchers with a unique opportunity to investigate educational change as a 'living laboratory'.
In this book, the authors explore the complex nature of change in five former communist countries: Russia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and East Germany. The authors consider:
* Educational change as a process rather than as a event
* A comparison of such changes against a model for educational change developed by Michael Fullan for understanding large-scale educational reform
* Analysis of issues at the national level where the original impetus for change has occurred
With contributors from countries affected by such changes, this book provides an insight into the process of educational change as a result of revolution rather than evolution.
This book will be of great interest to academics and researchers of educational change and those involved with educational reform. It will also interest those looking at comparative education models and postgraduate students focussing their studies on issues of educational change and reform.