Educational change in Southeast Asia. The challenge of creating learning systems
| Published date | 01 December 1998 |
| Date | 01 December 1998 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/09578239810238474 |
| Pages | 492-509 |
| Author | Philip Hallinger |
| Subject Matter | Education |
Journal of
Educational
Administration
36,5
492
Educational change in
Southeast Asia
The challenge of creating
learning systems
Philip Hallinger
Professor, Vanderbilt University, Chiang Mai University
and Melbourne University
Every few hundred years throughout Western history, a sharp transformation has occurred.
In a matter of decades, society altogether rearranges itself – its worldview, its basic values, its
social and political structures, its arts, its key institutions. Fifty years later a new world exists.
And the people born into that world cannot even imagine the world in which their
grandparents lived and into which their own parents were born (Drucker, 1995, p. 75).
This quotation highlights the fact that we live during an era in which the pace
and scope of change are unprecedented. Nowhere in the world is this
observation more salient than in the rapidly developing nations of Southeast
Asia. The same global change forces that manifest in the USA, Europe,
Australia, Canada, and Japan, have an even greater impact in Southeast Asia.
The social, economic, political and cultural institutions in the developing
societies that comprise this region face the challenge of adapting to the same
global standards in trade, commerce, education, human rights, and
manufacturing. Yet, they must play this highly competitive global game with
far fewer resources.
In the education sector, this is also the case. While policymakers and
analysts frequently mention education as a key factor in Southeast Asia’s recent
economic success (Rohwer, 1996), this obscures the wide range of variation in
educational development within the region (e.g. from Singapore to Thailand to
Indonesia). Moreover, it ignores the fact that some of the traditions and
practices that figured in the region’s educational achievement will impede
further development unless they can change (e.g. emphasis on rote learning,
highly centralized decision making).
Learning is the keystone to successful adaptation, not only for individuals
but also for organizations. Successful organizations tap the knowledge that
exists in the workforce and among customers. Leaders in successful
organizations create shared knowledge and apply this learning to adapt to a
rapidly changing environment (Stewart, 1997).
Journal of Educational
Administration,
Vol. 36 No. 5, 1998, pp. 492-509,
© MCBUniversity Press, 0957-8234 An earlier version of this paper was prepared for presentation at the Conference of the
Australasian Association of Senior Educational Administrators, Perth, Australia, August 1997.
Educational
change in
Southeast Asia
493
This observation has given rise to the notion of the learning organization
(Senge, 1990). Although the concept originated in the private sector, it has since
spread into schools as well. This seems appropriate for just as knowledge is the
focus of the educational enterprise, shared knowledge is the focal point of the
learning organization (Leithwood, 1995).
This orientation to school reform differs from traditional approaches to
school reform. These have tended to focus on first order changes such as
implementing a specific reform policy, practice, or process (e.g. effective
schools, school-based management, staff empowerment, higher standards). A
learning organization focuses on second order change in order to increase the
general capacity for learning in the workplace. This allows the organization to
bring about whatever changes it deems appropriate. A school that functions as
a learning organization has the capacity to innovate successfully in response to
its changing environment.
The application of learning organizations in education has tended to focus on
the schoolhouse. However, it is equally important to consider the role of system
leaders. This seems especially important in Southeast Asia where system
leaders continue to wield considerable authority when compared with nations
like the USA, New Zealand or Australia. Centralized decision making may be
one of the factors that led to past success, but which is now an obstacle to
change. If this is the case, what role can system leaders in Southeast Asia play
in the transformation of schools from order takers into self-renewing learning
organizations?
This challenge represents the focus of this paper. It begins with an
examination of the context in which schools operate today in the Asia Pacific
region. The analysis here will focus particularly on countries in Southeast Asia.
Next the paper presents a framework for viewing schools as learning
organizations. Finally it considers functions that Southeast Asia’s system
leaders can play in supporting the transformation of schools into learning
organizations.
The impact of global change forces on education in the Asia-Pacific
region
This is a period of unprecedented change for Southeast Asian societies. The
breadth and rapidity of change are not only overwhelming, but also seemingly
unstoppable. Changes come, for the most part, from outside our borders and are
seldom sought (O’Toole, 1995). While it has become trite to say that change is a
constant today, this is actually rather unusual for human society (Drucker,
1995). The second half of the twentieth century, indeed from 1970 forward,
represents a period of dramatic, transformational change.
A more powerful global media as well as greater access to information via
rapidly expanding networks of transportation, communication, and commerce
challenge traditional ways of living and working (Naisbitt, 1997; Ohmae, 1995;
Rohwer, 1996). Societies throughout the Asia Pacific region, but especially those
in Southeast Asia, have strained to accommodate new values emanating from
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