STORIES TO LIVE BY - NARRATIVE UNDERSTANDINGS OF SCHOOL-REFORM

Recently, writers on school change and implementation have shifted fro m the grand schemes and projects of the 1960s to school-based curricul um development and person-oriented approaches. Though more sensitive t o local conditions and to teacher knowledge, these latter-day approach es inadequately recognize that (1) school reform is a complex practice /theory social process in which undirected change is inevitable; (2) s chools and their participants have narrative histories; (3) the educat ional reform literature stretches back deep into the last century and is preceded by a relevant philosophical literature; and (4) school ref orm is an epistemological matter that involves issues of practitioner knowledge. These four points are elaborated in this article, Also, a s ketch is offered of how school reform might be viewed in narrative ter ms that address these points.