The Ecological Analysis Of School Change

Along with the advance of educational reform policy and practice in our country, school change increasingly becomes the tendency of educational change. The quantity of school change research has increased. The quality of school change research has improved. The issues of school change research has enriched. For the sake of enhance our school change practice and research, this paper transforms ecological theories into educational research approach and methods then uses these approach and methods to research three basic theoretic problems: what is school change? Why does school change? How school change?The "ecological analysis of school change" is a cross-subject research of education and ecology. Therefore the paper begins form the review of ecological research of education. In this part, the research finds that the low integration between education and ecology is a grave problem. In order to enhance the integration between these two and make a stable foundation for school change research, The paper puts forward the approach of "ecological analysis of education" and two methods: " ecological classification of education" and " ecological comparison of education".The "ecological analysis of education" is an educational-ecological approach which pays attention to all-around relation, gives importance to the value of whole,emphasizes the dynamic process and pursues the sustainable development. To pay attention to all-around relation and give importance to the value of whole means to research the relation between ecological subject and environment with the mode of thinking that emphasizes whole relation and to give importance to value of educational ecology that is formed with relation between ecological subject and environment. To emphasize the dynamic process and pursue the sustainable development means to research the dynamic evolution process of educational ecology with the mode of thinking that emphasizes dynamic development and to give importance to the value of sustainable development of educational ecology. The "ecological classification of education" is an ecological research method based on the "ecological analysis of education" that emphasizes the relation between the classification results and between the classification result and their environment. The "ecological comparison of education" is an ecological research method that emphasizes the relation and interaction between the research subject and their environment, as well as the history and future of the educational ecology.As for the question "what is school change?" ,this paper believes that it is not enough just to give out the definition of "school change". School change is one kind of school process. We must compare the school change with other kinds of school process in order to understand the characters of school change. So, after defining the school ecology and explaining its characters, the paper classifies the school process with "school ecological pattern", "school ecological flow" and "school ecological cycle". The school process is classified as "school ecological balance", "school ecological imbalance" and school change."School ecological pattern" is one certain relatively stable relation construction formed by the interaction of every element inside school ecology. And "school ecological flow" is the type and volume measurement of the input & output between school and ecological circumstance. The "school ecological cycle" is the period in which the school moves, and it is defined as one school year in this paper. During the discussed "school ecological cycle" in this paper i.e. two or more cycles, if "school ecological flow" and "school ecological pattern" have undergone no substantial change, then we call the type and state of school ecological process "school ecological balance"; when "school ecological pattern" changes little while "school ecological flow" does change, we call it "school ecological imbalance", and when both of them do change, we call it school change. Besides the definition of every kind of classification standard and outcome, the paper emphasizes the above relation of the school ecological process.As for the question "Why does school change?", this paper focuses on school change force .The main purpose of the research into school change force is to make the school members, especially teachers feel the tense of school change. In order to carry this point, this paper researches the passive school pathology and positive school vision. School pathology mainly produces drive and pushes the school members to keep away from current education practice. School vision mainly produces pull and draws the school members to stride forward to the new education practice.School pathology, a comprehensive one which affects a wide range, is pathology state and operation of school ecology and the imbalance of each element of school ecology. To transform school pathology to school reform force, owing to the asymmetrical relation between the integrated pathology and individual reform force, the paper argues that: first, the member of the school ecology recognizes the existence and severance of school pathology and then the urgency of school reform; second, the member has to be cultivated with the culture; and at last, the member has to promote individual reform efficiency. School vision is one part of school philosophy aiming at envisioning the mission and core values, which is vivid imagination of each member of the school about the school outlook after reform. To transform school vision to school reform force is partly owing to today's social-ecological environment and partly to special relation between whole vision and individual character. After the solution to the food & clothing problem, people are imperative to find the meaning and value of life during work, but the dull and passive work fails to satisfy people's need. It is a social-ecological environment in which school vision transforms to school reform force.Based on school vision's own imagination and secular features and aiming to stir personal reform force, it can satisfy people's metal need and deeper desire in special relationship of vision and humanity; a corporate vision can set free the transformation space depressed by the bureaucracy, and arouse transformation power in the organization by blinding members to the organization.As for "how school change?", this paper focuses on the school change process from different ecological scales. The ecological scales of school are individual, team and organization. The individual ecological process of school change puts forward the teacher learning for change based on the our country's current educational ecology as the individual ecological mechanism of school change after discussing teachers' desire and ability of school change. The collective ecological process of school change explains the school change mechanism on teacher team with David Bohm's dialogue theory after introducing the value of team and learning team in school change. The organizational ecological process of school change explains the logical order and ecological mechanism of school change on organizational scale with the Burke-Litwin model of organizational performance and change, Chris Argyris and Donald A. Schon's organization learning theory and John P. Kotter and Dan S. Cohen's see-feel-change model after illuminate the meaning and value of school change on organizational scale.