The Evolutionary Stages of Schooling
Key Indicators
A Discussion Paper
Mal Lee
June 14, 2013 version
This paper emerged out of an analysis of that as yet rare cadre of schools in the UK, US, NZ and Australia that have or nearly have succeeded in normalising the use of the digital in all their operations, educational and administrative.
The research was undertaken as part of the preparations for a forthcoming publication on Digital Normalisation and School Transformation I’m writing.
The belief was that the work had so many implications for schooling globally, and it would be beneficial to place the thoughts on the evolutionary stages online and allow all interested to read, reflect and if they wish to comment.
Indeed I’ve partnered with Roger Broadie in the UK in creating a Taxonomy of School Evolutionary Stages, a work that will provide schools globally an international measure, with easily used benchmarks to identify where they are at on the evolutionary continuum and to readily identify the path ahead.
That work will be published as an e-book in the near future.
If you would like to provide me a comment please do at – mallee@mac.com
The Evolutionary Stages
At this point in the evolution of schooling I’ve identified six main development stages.
The transformative Digital Normalisation stage has only come on to the radar this year, even though there were strong signs in 2012 of its emergence.
The stages are a construct designed to assist schools with their planning and development. They have emerged after noting the remarkably similar journeys of all the pathfinders studied. The indicators within each of the stages are intended as guide, full well recognising that in different situations a particular development might come earlier or later.
The crucial variables at each stage are italicised.
In considering the stages it is important to appreciate all the schools displayed an excellent understanding of organisational change, with all throughout the stages being highly proactive, consciously seeking to foster a culture of change and understanding the imperative of the leadership being politically astute.
To secure a PDF of the full stages click here.