The Devil Is in the Details
System Solutions for Equity, Excellence, and Student Well-Being
- Michael Fullan - Michael Fullan Enterprises Inc.
- Mary Jean Gallagher - Ministry of Education, Ontario
We need to combine a moral imperative and a system transformation to survive for the better. Education is crucial to our future but needs to play a more direct role in shaping our future. The Devil is in the Details shows how we can re-think the education system and its three levels of leadership—local, middle, and top—so that each level can contribute to dramatic turnaround for education and society. The focus is on examining details to ensure effective actions are taken, rather than assuming large pronouncements and policies will drive change. Readers will find:
• Details and analysis about successful systems in California, Ontario, and Australia
• Ideas for how leaders at all levels can take steps to begin
• Vignettes, actions and strategies that illustrate how to address equity, excellence and well-being
With the goal of transforming the culture of learning to develop greater equity, excellence, and student wellbeing, this book will help you liberate the system and maintain focus.
Today's generation of education reformers and practitioners are struggling with a fundamental question: how do we ensure that equity is deeply and inseparably infused into systems change at every level? Building on a deep and broad foundation of their previous work, Fullan and Gallagher provide a compelling answer here. As they say, the details are key: we must understand the context and background unique to each level of the system, unleash each level to thrive in a state of connected autonomy relative to the others, and be guided by the moral purpose - equity, excellence, well being, and helping students become good at life - throughout the work. This book provides a practical guide for any leader at any level - school, district, region, or government - to do just that.
