System redesign is about improving the architecture of
schooling. Headteachers and their staff are the architects.
They stand between the politicians, who set the framework
within which the educational architecture is designed, and the
students, whose needs must be met.
The importance of innovation
In his forthcoming publication, System redesign 1: The
road to transformation in education, Professor David
Hargreaves argues that innovation in schools is alive and well.
Teachers are skilled in improvisation as teaching is constantly
modified to fit the needs and moods of every class and every
student. To be a successful teacher, one has to learn to be
flexible with one’s professional practice.
In schools that strive for improvement, the headteacher turns
this routine improvisation into more ambitious and systematic
innovation. System redesign has to be built on such practice.
The building blocks of system redesign
The basic building blocks of system redesign are
reconfigurations; elements of conventional schooling, or the
relations between two or more such elements, that are first
questioned and then configured in a new way to meet the challenges
of 21st century schooling.
The reconfigurations (listed on the right hand side of this
page) fall into three groups:
System redesign publication
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