Educational Reform in Scotland: Policy, Governance and Professional Culture

Citation

Priestley M & Humes W (2025) Educational Reform in Scotland: Policy, Governance and Professional Culture. In: Politics and Knowledge: Shaping Educational Reform. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 99-114.

Abstract
Educational reforms – their origins, intentions, development, impediments, implementation and evaluation – have been a major focus of investigation for several decades . A common conclusion has been that it is not easy to make successful changes in educational systems for a variety of reasons – conceptual weakness, bureaucratic inflexibility, teacher resistance, poor communication, political redirection. More positively, several writers have identified factors which are critical to ensuring the success of reform programmes, including: the quality of leadership; the development of professional learning communities; bridging the gap between policy makers and practitioners; and transforming school culture. The Scottish experience serves not only to illustrate the scale of the challenge but also to point to some of the ways in which progress can be made.