For several decades, international donor agencies have provided considerable support for organisational reforms within the agricultural extension system in Bangladesh. This support has been provided through a series of short-term projects that have experimented with a variety of novel extension systems. These have ranged from the centralised training and visit model to decentralised subdistrict based systems to an even more decentralised farmer-led extension system. They have also ranged from an extension system operated by a single government agency to systems run by a partnership between government and non-government organisations. The experimentation has also involved a country-wide or large-scale system to local or small-scale systems. Furthermore, the reforms have varied from a single organisation providing only advisory services to farmers to a constellation of organisations providing a combination of services. However, in virtually every case, when donor support was removed at the completion of a project, the extension reform was found to be unsustainable post-project. Despite the continued failure of donor sponsored extension reforms in Bangladesh, little is formally known as to why such reforms have been unsustainable. Such knowledge is critical if donor-assisted extension reforms in Bangladesh are to be effective and sustainable. Therefore, the overall aim of this study was to determine the reasons why a donor-supported extension reform becomes unsustainable in Bangladesh. From a review of literature, a conceptual framework was developed outlining the conditions/factors under which organisational systems or innovations supported through donor projects do, or do not, become sustainable. Using a qualitative single case study approach, a poorly sustained extension reform supported through a donor project was investigated in depth in Bangladesh. From this investigation, a model that explains the non-sustainability of a donor supported extension reform in Bangladesh was developed. Several theoretically important findings were identified in this study. The extension reform was poorly sustained because the principles underlying the reform lacked cultural legitimacy. This problem was compounded due to the presence of perverse institutional forces in the operational context, and because the extension agencies concerned lacked adequate human and financial resources. The sustainability of the extension reform was also compromised because of poor implementation performance, complex design, parallel modes of project implementation, a failure to develop recipient ownership, and poor capacity to learn and adapt the reform. The mechanisms by which these factors influenced the non-sustainability of the reform are described in detail. The results from this study suggest that the sustainability of donor-supported extension reforms cannot be achieved within the short time frame set out in most projects. Nor can such changes be sustainable unless they are aligned with the norms, values and traditions of extension agencies and rural people. In particular, sustainability will continue to be a serious challenge unless the perverse institutional incentives confronted by extension agencies and rural people are minimised. The donors concerned in Bangladesh should support a locally-owned and single reform idea rather than undertaking haphazard projects with varied ideas, improve inter-donor coordination and come up with a coordinated decision of not providing monetary incentives to extension agencies and rural people, support extension reforms according to the felt needs of recipients, and stop providing aid in the event of repeated failures.

No description available.

No description available.

The focus of this study has been to connect the idea of developing schools as learning organisations with the notion of developing learning leaders and building school capacity for our knowledge economy. Therefore, this action-inquiry self-study has examined the issues of curriculum reform in the context of more general organisational reform. It has explored the notion of schools being recultured or reconstructed to work as learning organisations in a climate that focuses on the improved social and academic learning outcomes of their students. This self-study represents two significant chapters in my professional life and captures approximately four years of professional snapshots. It has allowed me to examine my practice of partnering, conversing, arranging and developing shared vision across two schools. This study recognized these as powerful reculturing mechanisms and affirmed that conversations about learning, shared beliefs mission and vision, enabling leadership that reflects parallel learning relationships and enabling organisational arrangements are critical for sustainable reform. Consequently the exploration of the relationship between teacher learning, teacher leadership and a professional learning culture has been the main focus for this research. Analytical processes for this study first explored the relationship between teacher learning, teacher leadership and a professional learning culture through an examination of current curriculum reforms. This is followed by a layered analysis of the two narratives based on my leadership in two different school settings. A rigorous mapping and scanning process then assisted the analysis of these narratives. This process was supported by a number of specific conceptual frameworks that underpin the school reculturing process and reflect key qualities of schools that work as learning organisations. Six significant snapshots emerged from the analysis of the two narratives. The deeper analysis of these snapshots, which have been referred to as close-ups, formed a number of my first tentative propositions. These layers of investigation were also supported by the responses of several key snapshot participants and reader respondents, before the final propositions were made. These responses recognised that an organisation that works together, learns together; and that there is strength and powerful learning when leadership can assist practitioners to work as a learning community. These qualities were found to be directly related to this study's proposed reconstructed model for developing schools as learning organisations. The reconstructed model recognised a number of other less visible elements that can be seen in a school working as a learning organisation. These elements relate directly to enabling/capacity building leadership and the associated relationship skills of leaders. They were found to be necessary elements for effective collaboration and for creating spaces for conversation, reflection, spontaneity and risk-taking. This study also recognised that any deconstruction and reconstruction of a school as a learning organisation is first a reconstruction of core beliefs and values. These beliefs and values are reflected in a school's culture and are inclusive of the visible and less visible elements. The constant examination of one's assumptions, ideas, values and beliefs has been considered to be essential to the analysis process, as well as to the process of reform and achieving organisational change. The study revealed, therefore, that enabling/capacity-building leadership is a key to the process of reculturing a school as a learning organisation. The data from respondents also indicates that this notion of leadership as being enabling/capacity building has also been a primary focus for answering the second of the key research questions: 'How does a process of deconstruction and reconstruction take place?' The additional points of difference/interest that emerged from the various respondents suggest that the process of deconstruction and reconstruction of a school as a learning organisation would be assisted by realising that energy and passion are needed for enabling/capacity building leadership. This form of leadership requires moving from being top-down and become more parallel with renewed learning relationships. This study affirmed that this focus on establishing parallel learning relationships assists in the development of parallel learning leadership and parallel learning partnerships. Enabling/capacity building leaders working in parallel with their teachers can also play an important role in developing/supporting flexible and imaginative school organisation. In this way enabling/capacity building leaders can work as learning leaders and brokers to assist the development of other learning partnerships/alliances. This community building strategy can consequently develop opportunities for teachers to work and learn collaboratively as learning leaders. Enabling/capacity building leadership is correctly placed as the key to considering how the deconstruction and reconstruction process takes place. Further, the reconstruction process taking place reflect a culture of dynamic inquiry. This is made possible when enabling/capacity building leaders share and commit to similar notions of schools working as learning organisations and teachers are assisted/brokered to work collaboratively for professional alliances and professional growth. Consequently this study proposes that teachers cope better with the ever-increasing demands of curriculum reforms if: * schools can work as learning organisations * schools allow teachers to work as learning leaders * administrative leaders support/enable and model risk-taking, spontaneous and collaborative practices * there are shared beliefs, mission and vision; organisational arrangements/support; conversations for learning; shared approaches to pedagogy, and parallel relationships * enabling/capacity-building leadership for learning alliances allows for a professional culture of dynamic inquiry that can evolve with a renewed focus on conversations for learning. The findings of this study have theoretical, methodological and practical significance. In the first instance it presents as theoretical significance, the reconstruction of a theoretical framework for schools working as learning organisations. The methodological significance is reflected in this study's emphasis on theorising through layers. The methodological contribution acknowledges a legitimate and rigorous form of practitioner research, revealing self-study methodology at a level that is more then mere self-indulgence. In presenting its final contribution, the thesis acknowledges the practical contribution of the study by emphasising the process involved in creating a culture of dynamic inquiry. The transformative nature of this action- inquiry self-study is therefore confirmed in this study. The layered analysis reflects a process of making sense of the messiness of practitioner research, and consequently provides a true sense of this established form of practical theorising in the teaching profession. These characteristics should be seen not as limitations, but rather as authentic strengths.