The micropolitics of educational change

Abstract

This article focuses on the micropolitics of educational change, an area that is just now emerging in educational research. After a brief review of relevant theoretical literature, the micropolitics of stability and change are discussed. The general studies selected are described, in order to illustrate the omnipresence of micropolitics in the educational environment. Micropolitical studies of educational reforms of the 1980s and 1990s, and general studies on school restructuring in the 1990s, are also reviewed. These reviews are presented in order to demonstrate the central thesis of this work: micropolitics is the fundamental dimension of school change in general and, more specifically, a main nucleus of the majority of the approaches to restructuring. The article provides a framework of ideas on possible future research on the micropolitics of school change. This research is essential, as there are currently few studies devoted to this area of interest.