Learning to Change [antikvár]

Preface Whether as a student, a parent, a nongovernmental organization (NGO) activist, a teacher, a principal, a government official, or an academic expert, we are colleagues in transforming schools in South East Europe. Many genuine stories, as we have lived them in the past fifteen years, have not been written down. Only parts of the recent historic drama in "the Balkans" ever made it into the local or international media. The way educational improvement really happens—or fails to happen—is not easy to capture or to put into words. We created this volume of many voices about education change to complement official reports and scholarly research. There are stacks of technical reports on the shelves of ministries of education and their international partners, including the World Bank, the OECD, the European Union (EU), United Nations agencies, bilateral aid agencies, and numerous international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Such papers assess a country's education sector, give us "the numbers," report on factfinding trips, develop recommendations, justify policies, detail investments, and otherwise satisfy the requirements of bureaucracy and policymaking. They provide raw material for academics and analysts with an interest in South East Europe. Yes, they do play an important role. Official reports are compiled, however, with a certain detachment. And the analyses often don't or can't uncover the hardest truths about the school situation and its politics. The context of education in South East Europe is diverse and full of contradictions. There are breakthroughs and occasional triumphs, such as a peace agreement or an election that heralds a better time, a national education reform process launched or legislation passed, a new project or program approved, a textbook or a training model delivered and well-received. There are twists and turns in the life of a ministry of education—or an entire government, for that matter. The projects, presence, and reception of international donor agencies vary from place to place. Nowadays in South East Europe, there is a clear view westward, toward EU membership, especially with the accession