The Concept of Fundamental Educational Change

A bstract In this essay, Leonard Waks contributes to a reconceptualization of “fundamental educational change.” By distinguishing sharply between educational change at the organizational and the institutional levels, Waks shows that the mechanisms of change at these two levels are entirely different. He then establishes, by means of a conceptual argument, that fundamental educational change takes place not at the organizational, but rather at the institutional level. Along the way Waks takes Larry Cuban’s influential conceptual framework regarding educational change as both a starting point and target of appraisal.