Leading Education Reforms that Make a Difference
There is never a single-model approach or uniform guidance as to how an educational leader should best proceed to spearhead reforms that can spark positive change to benefit multiple realms and stakeholder groups. Letters to a New Minister of Education, a volume edited by Dr. Fernando M. Reimers that has recently been out in the U.S., shares a deep well of cross-country experience in how to make sustainable transformations in education come about.
Spanning landscapes as diverse as Russia, India, Mexico, Peru, Brazil, Columbia, Australia, Poland, Portugal, and Singapore, the book provides a multifaceted perspective on how educational reforms have been unfolding in these countries to enhance schooling so that students become better prepared to live and work in a rapidly changing world.
The contributors to this book, who have all served as ministry heads or senior officials at the nation-state system level, share firsthand accounts of what it took at various points in time for policy to do a better job advancing educational change, how system transformations were accepted by different stakeholders, as well as the main outcomes that these developments have had. Embedding a premise that the best strategies to reform learning & development should always rely on a robust synthesis of practical knowledge and research evidence, the volume offers insights that a wide audience of in-service and future leaders in education will find relevant to their academic and on-the-job agendas.
One of the book chapters, which reflects on how Russian education has been transforming from the early 2000s and up to the present time, is coauthored by Head of the HSE Institute of Education and former Advisor to the Russian Education Minister, Dr. Isak Froumin, and Rector of Moscow City University and former Deputy Russian Education Minister, Dr. Igor Remorenko.
The book editor, Dr. Fernando M. Reimers, is a Ford Foundation Professor and Director of the Global Education Innovation Initiative and of the Master’s Program in International Education Policy at Harvard University.