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Evolution in educational change: A literature review of the historical core of the Journal of Educational Change

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Abstract

This literature review explored educational change trends as reflected in the first 15 years of the Journal of Educational Change (JEC), from 2000 to 2014. The examination of 52 articles accounting for 61% of the Journal’s historical citations indicated that the JEC has evolved through five periods, which relate to ‘waves of educational change’ beyond the Journal itself. At the center of this development there has been a process of de-centering of Anglo-American perspectives on educational reform, pushed both by an increasing pessimism among U.S. and U.K. scholars regarding their countries’ reforms and by systematic evidence that other educational systems are achieving better student learning outcomes. The aforementioned evolution also shows a shift from more conceptual works by the field’s historical leaders toward more empirical research conducted by emergent scholars. After discussing the predominant concept of educational change, the major silences in the reviewed literature, and what this evolution in the JEC says about the field of educational change at large, the paper ends reflecting on challenges as a new generation of scholars begins to enter the conversation.

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Notes

  1. PISA has a 6-year cycle of assessments, focusing alternatively on three areas. The 2006 test focused on science following the 2000 test on literacy and the 2003 test on mathematics.

  2. These waves are independent of Hargreaves and Goodson’s (2006) reform waves, just like the JEC’s five-period evolution has no direct relation with their three periods of educational change in Canada and the U.S. between 1970 and 2000.

  3. The h-index is the largest number, h, such that at least h articles have been cited at least h times each. The h5-index is the h-index if we consider the last five years, i.e., it is the number of articles published during the last 5 years that have been cited at least h times.

  4. Something similar can be said about some of the other major silences mentioned in this review. For example, the May 2016 issue featured articles about technology and the learning sciences (Shirley and Noble 2016).

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The asterisks indicate the 52 reviewed articles.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to give special thanks to Professor Dennis Shirley for his support throughout this endeavor. Without his encouragement to engage in this process with a critical lens, and his willingness to offer feedback at critical junctures, this review would not have been possible. We would also like to thank the JEC’s board and editorial staff for their openness and insights as we completed this review of the Journal’s historical core.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Lynch School of Education, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, USA

    Juan Cristobal Garcia-Huidobro, Allison Nannemann, Chris K. Bacon & Katherine Thompson

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  1. Juan Cristobal Garcia-Huidobro
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Correspondence to Juan Cristobal Garcia-Huidobro.

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Garcia-Huidobro, J.C., Nannemann, A., Bacon, C.K. et al. Evolution in educational change: A literature review of the historical core of the Journal of Educational Change . J Educ Change 18, 263–293 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10833-017-9298-8

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