Opening Windows to Change

Book excerpt: This book is an evaluatory case study of international co-operation in educational change through the European Union's TEMPUS programme for developing and restructuring higher education in TACIS-eligible countries. It offers a reflective post-project evaluation of the development programme to prepare teachers to meet special educational needs in the formerly closed Russian city and region of Perm. It considers the programme's continuation, extension and dissemination, and its effects on new related international work, including the follow-on TEMPUS-TACIS project for health education. This book is a case study for educational development programmes generally, for issues related to trans-European co-operation in education, for questions related to accountability, and for the relationship of development and comparative research programmes. The introductory formal report of the special educational needs international project in Perm is the backcloth for subsequent reflective chapters which probe beyond the formal account and record what is happening in the hearts and minds of the teachers and trainers. Part Two relates this TEMPUS project to wider conditions for change in schools. Part Three gives space to examples of further exploration prompted by and outside the initial scope of a proposal. The applicability of models for transition is taken up in the concluding chapter, which also confronts the accountability patterns now seen to be hampering real change.