Curriculum development and change poses a range of challenges with regard to curriculum role teachers are to play when such a change takes place. The purpose of this study was to investigate the curriculum development role of teachers as key agents in curriculum change. In evaluating the curriculum development role of teachers as key agents of change, it was imperative to look at the curriculum development role with regard to the development phases and the seven roles as outlined in the Revised National Curriculum Statement and it became evident that there was a need to make certain as to whether teachers were empowered for their curriculum development role by looking at their level of empowerment. This investigation was prompted by school teachers who were and are de–motivated and lack direction as to what their actual role is in curriculum development for the changing curriculum in South Africa is. The literature study established the importance of teacher development in the South African context. Curriculum development or change as variously defined, relates to teachers' knowledge, skills, attitudes and values in reaching the aim of teaching and learning. In investigating the problem at hand, it was imperative to look at the methodology that would best suit the problem. A qualitative approach was selected where focus group interviews were administered at four schools in the district. It was established that the role which teachers play as curriculum developers in the changing curriculum of South Africa is pivotal and that change cannot be successfully attained if teachers' roles are not clear and if teachers' development is not initiated before and during change process and curriculum development. This research therefore draws a conclusion that teacher involvement and development in curriculum development is imperative if South Africa is to realize its education goals. / Thesis (M.Ed.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

Accomplishing desired benefits from investments in planned change is problematical for organizations, their leaders and the change agents charged with delivery. This is despite a well-developed literature, replete with advice on how change should be achieved. Examination of this literature shows the primary focus on change agents and their practices. This research widens the focus by observing the influence of change agents, change recipients and line managers on organizational routines undergoing planned change. It examines the interplay between stability and change in organizational routines, adopting a social practice perspective, and the routine intended to change as the unit of analysis (Feldman and Pentland, 2003, 2005). The research builds on claims that to understand the patterns of action within routines requires the internal dynamics – the claimed duality between ostensive (in principle) and performative (in practice) aspects - to be examined. A research method to operationalize the study of this claimed duality was devised following the principles of Strong Structuration (Stones, 2005). This method enabled a unique conceptualization of the study of routine dynamics, focused on planned change from the perspective of multiple, interdependent actors. Two cases of change agents following the advice in the planned change literature were explored. In one case, stability of the routine persisted when change was intended. In the other, change was relatively easy to achieve irrespective of change agent actions. The primary contribution is the demonstration of how the attitudes to change of change recipients, line managers and change agents influence the internal dynamics of routines undergoing planned change. Other contributions pertain to the method of ‘unpacking’ organizational routines and its potential for shaping future practice. This research does not offer new ‘normative’ advice but instead sensitizes planned change practitioners to the level of analysis they need to carry out to ensure that their interventions are suitably designed.

The research reported in this thesis investigated staff-student collaboration in advanced undergraduate mathematics course design and delivery at a research-intensive UK university. Staff and students collaborated to redesign and deliver two courses: Vector Spaces and Complex Variables. The collaboration in the design of the two courses involved students who had completed the courses and then who worked as interns together with a small team of academic staff. The collaboration in the delivery of the two courses involved the implementation of a Peer Assisted Learning (PAL) scheme in which third-year students facilitated the learning of second-year students in optional scheduled sessions. The study employed a mixed-methods research strategy involving an ethnographic approach to the study of the course design process and PAL sessions followed by an observational study (a quasi-experimental design) to investigate the impact of PAL attendance on the achievement of PAL participants. This thesis reports findings from a three-phase research design. Phase one explored the nature of the collaborations in course design and its impact on staff teaching practices and on the student collaborators. Phase two investigated the characteristics of the PAL sessions for the advanced undergraduate mathematics courses and the roles played in those sessions. Phase two also explored the impact of PAL in qualitative terms on both PAL participants and PAL leaders. Phase three investigated the impact of PAL in quantitative terms on the achievement of students who participated as PAL participants. The study found that staff-student collaboration in course design and delivery led to emergent Communities of Practice in which staff and students engaged in mathematics practice which led to identity transformation of student collaborators, a deeper understanding of the mathematics on which the students worked and some change in staff teaching and course design practice. The also showed that staff-student collaboration in the delivery of course units via PAL resulted in a learning community in which PAL participants and PAL leaders engaged in mathematics practice which led to increased student achievement and enhanced affective outcomes for both PAL participants and PAL leaders.

The purpose of this study is to determine to what extent the individuals in middle management positions in campus activities perceive themselves to be effective as change agents. A thirty-three item survey was mailed to 315 directors. A total of 199 usable returns were received. The problem was investigated in terms of perceptions of (a) individual adequate training and competency to provide new and expanded service for today's student body, (b) individual influence on upper-level policy and decision making within their own reporting structure, and (c) commanding enough influence on campus to effect significant change.

Background: Climate change has become the most pressing challenge of our time. Current business approaches to sustainability are instrumental that may portray sustainability as a source of corporate profit rather than acting for change beyond mitigation and adaptation. A regenerative approach to sustainability challenges current practices and aims to create and strengthen environmental and social well-being. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to deepen the understanding of how change agents can be a part of a regenerative sustainability transition. This is done by investigating the attitudes of change agents to such a transition. The aim is to contribute to theoretical and practical implications of organizational change theory, addressing the phenomena of organizational regenerative sustainability. Method: The paradigm of this study is of critical realist nature with an exploratory research design. An abductive model inspired the research approach, and semi-structured interviews were performed to collect primary data. A thematic analysis was then performed to draw conclusions from this study. Results: The analysis uncovered both welcoming and reluctant attitudes toward a regenerative transition. The welcoming attitudes were inherently more optimistic toward a regenerative transition, whereas change agents with reluctant attitudes identified more challenges and barriers for implementing a regenerative transition simultaneously as their perspectives were more business-centered. When weighing the evidence, it appears that the welcoming attitudes are relatively more likely to have a positive impact on implementing regenerative change as well as succeed with the initiation.

I use my art practice in conjunction with environmental behaviour research and Michel de Certeau’s practice of the everyday, to enable a re-examination of socially engaged art and through art to activate environmental behaviour change. Questions Clarify contemporary debate about demonstrable and desirable aspects and issues of socially engaged art practice and through my own practice identify its key characteristics. Examine the claim for change offered by many socially engaged practitioners. Context The socially engaged artist operates outside of the gallery, in everyday lives and real situations, often engaging in issues of meaning to society at large, where participation and facilitation of dialogue are the common characteristics. I identify participation, the ambition of social change, aesthetic representation and a failure to communicate beyond the participative event as key considerations. (Bishop 2004; Bourriaud 2002; Kester 2004; Kwon 2004) I propose an aesthetic of presence, to recognise community as a creative vernacular and as pooled knowledge. Drawn from Michel de Certeau’s research into everyday life (Michel de Certeau 1985; Michel de Certeau et al. 1998a) this also provides a refocusing on participation through conversation and describes rupture events, which signify change occurring. Method This thesis compares research in an alternative field, environmental behaviour, which investigates the impediments to change (the value-action gap), how change happens and identifies the change agent, as essential to encourage change at a personal level. (Ballard and Associates 2005b; Darnton et al. 2006) I use the value-action gap, the tension point between knowing about climate change and failing to make changes in our own behaviour, (Blake 1999; Darnton 2004b; Kollmus and Agyeman 2002) as a direct impetus to make participative artwork that examines the idea of a sustainable lifestyle. My art practice recognises a three-stage process: an admission of my own environmental behaviour; encouraging reciprocal participation and conversation and enabling personal reflection; representing conversation offering shared vernacular knowledge and enabling others’ engagement with the artwork and behaviour change. Equating the socially engaged artist with the environmental change agent, I synthesised the Model for Change Agents (S. Ballard and Ballard 2005a; Ballard and Associates 2005b) with research on participation in the arts (Matarasso 1997), as a basis for understanding how participation occurs and how change could happen in socially engaged artworks. An analysis of pilot artworks extends this model to identify the conditions for change, which also equate to the aesthetic aspects of the artwork, in a new model for Practice, Participation and Progression. Outcomes I propose key characteristics for socially engaged practice based on analysis of contemporary commentators and the model for practice, participation and progression. The role of the socially engaged artist is identified as comparable to the change agent. Representing conversation, addresses an issue of socially engaged practice to communicate beyond documentation of the event’s provocation and participation. I develop discussion of the discursive site beyond participation itself to a community of common sensibility and pooled knowledge as a demonstration of personal agency that is able to redefine the public ideal and challenge dominant culture. Re-presenting conversation is a means of sharing knowledge, stimulating change and expanding community. Contributing to environmental behaviour research my art practice reveals our ability to abstract behaviour, identifies our main areas of concern within lifestyle, our motivations for making change and the importance of the preservation of personal agency. I also comment on de Certeau, identifying the problems with individual resistance through the everyday, exploring mini-rupture events signaling change and proposing a reversal of the aesthetic of absence to an aesthetic of presence creating a new narrative that utilises personal agency.

Syfte: Syftet med arbetet är att söka förståelse för de utmaningar organisationer står inför vid CSR-implementering, och hur de utmaningarna kan mötas med förändringsagenter. Metod: Uppsatsen baseras kring en kvalitativ metod där tematisk analys appliceras. Via relevant teoretiskt material identifieras de tre övergripande temana Tolkning, Förändringsagent och Implementering, vilka agerar strukturell grund vid redovisning samt analys av insamlad empirisk data. Empirisk data har samlats in genom semistrukturerade intervjuer utförda på en svensk människorättsorganisation.     Resultat & slutsats: Uppsatsens resultat indikerar att skapandet av organisationsbreda förståelser av begreppet CSR underlättas då konceptet knyts till organisationens egen kontext. Uppsatsen visar hur den egna kontexten i form av faktorer som värdegrund, organisationsklimat och historik agerar vägledande drivkrafter då en specifik begreppstolkning ska formeras. Vidare belyses förändringsagentens roll i processen med speciell betoning kring informella förändringsagenters betydelse vid tolkning av CSR. Uppsatsen visar då hur engagerade personer inom organisationen med naturlig passion och kompetens effektivt kan förmedla en gemensam uppfattning om begreppets innebörd i den egna kontexten.   Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Uppsatsens begränsning utgörs av valet av studieobjekt. Den studerade människorättsorganisationen omges av faktorer som kan anses vara unika i ett bredare organisationsperspektiv, varför generalisering av forskningsresultaten kan anses problematisk. Därför bör framtida forskning riktas mot att vidare utforska uppsatsens framkomna insikter i ett sammanhang av privata företag. Uppsatsens bidrag: Uppsatsens bidrag består dels i en ökad förståelse kring betydelsen av informella förändringsagenter och hur organisationer som första steg i orienteringen mot CSR bör vända blicken mot den egna organisationen. Vidare framkommer att personer samt faktorer som redan existerar inom organisationen, exempelvis värdegrund, historik eller organisationsklimat, redan kan utgöra en solid grund mot förståelse av den egna kontexten vid tolkning av CSR. / Aim: The purpose of this thesis is to gain insight into the challenges that faces organisations when implementing CSR, and how those challenges can be met with change agents. Method: This thesis is based around a qualitative method wherein a thematic analysis is applied. Through relevant theoretic ground the three overall themes of Interpretation, Change agents and Implementation is identified, further acting as a structural basis for the account as well as analysis of the empirical data. The empirical information has in turn been collected through semistructured interviews conducted at a Swedish human rights organisation.   Result & Conclusions: The findings of this thesis indicate that the creation of an organisation-wide understanding of CSR is facilitated by attaching the concept to the individual context of the organisation. The context in the form of factors such as basic values, organisational climate and overall history is then acting as a guiding force towards forming a specific conceptual interpretation. The procedural role of the change agent is further highlighted, with an emphasis on the importance of raising awareness around informal change agents through the process of interpreting CSR. The findings then demonstrate how dedicated persons within the organisation through natural passion and competence, effectively can convey unified understandings of the concept within the own context. Suggestions for future research: The limitations of the thesis consist of the chosen study example. The human rights organisation studied is surrounded by factors that can be viewed as rather unique in a wider organisational perspective. Generalising the results can therefore prove to be problematic. Future research should in that sense be aimed towards exploring the insights of this thesis in the context of private corporations. Contribution of the thesis: The contribution of this thesis consist in part of the increased understanding around the importance of informal change agents and how organisations as a first step in the orientation to CSR should direct focus towards the own organisation. The thesis further suggests that several factors already existing within the organisation, such as basic values, history and organisational climate, can provide a solid framework upon building heightened understandings of the own context in terms of interpreting CSR.

Caracterizar o significado de liderança é um aspecto que permite discutir a atuação do professor na escola e a possibilidade de avanços de projetos diferenciados de educação ambiental (EA) dentro e fora da sala de aula. O objetivo deste estudo é caracterizar a liderança dos professores na perspectiva de gestores de secretarias de educação e meio ambiente, envolvidos com EA escolar, e de professores por eles indicados como aqueles que são agentes de mudanças em EA nas escolas. Foram consultados quatro gestores a partir de seus cargos ocupados em instituições públicas e realizou-se uma entrevista semiestruturada, gravada e transcrita, com os mesmos para a escolha de quatro docentes vistos por estes gestores como lideranças em EA em suas escolas. De todos os nomes colocados, os docentes foram selecionados pela facilidade de serem os únicos quatro conhecidos pela pesquisadora. Com estes, realizou-se uma entrevista que seguiu o mesmo método da realizada com os gestores. As respostas foram analisadas e comparadas pergunta a pergunta, para que se pudessem encontrar regularidades e tendências entre concepções de gestores e professores e para que estas fossem discutidas em relação à construção da liderança docente em EA. A partir das entrevistas, foram propostos 6 focos de análise e interpretações: 1- Diferença da concepção de liderança docente por gestores e professores: ambos reconhecem que existem, na escola pública, professores capazes de realizar projetos diferenciados de EA, porém são lideranças informais. Sua valorização seria o maior apoio da direção para facilitar o trabalho e reconhecimento dos docentes líderes; 2- Trabalho coletivo das lideranças docentes: professores e gestores reconhecem o aspecto central da colaboração para a ação do professor líder. Porém, ela é vista, por parte dos gestores, como \"uma via de mão única\" no qual os professores colaboram com os projetos dos gestores, mas o contrário não é mencionado; 3- Projetos como os principais trabalhos desenvolvidos pelas lideranças docentes em EA: professores e gestores comentaram sobre os trabalhos com EA e perceberam que as lideranças docentes os desenvolvem dentro e fora da sala de aula; 4- Dificuldades para o surgimento de lideranças docentes em EA nas escolas: para os professores, centram-se na falta de apoio dos colegas e nas formas de gestão que fiscalizam seus trabalhos. A maior parte dos gestores pouco compreende as especificidades do trabalho docente; 5- Desvalorização da liderança pelos gestores e pelo sistema e a EA na escola: gestores e professores concordam que há desvalorização de docentes que se envolvem em mudanças; 6- Relação frágil entre tornar a escola mais democrática e participativa por meio do professor líder e a EA: pouco são lembradas as instâncias de decisão dos professores, como os Conselhos Escolares e PPP e como podem ser instrumentos de mudanças para que a sustentabilidade seja inserida nas escolas. Não são claras as especificidades da EA para gestores ou professores, pois apenas uma gestora entrevistada relaciona os fundamentos da EA às ações na escola. Em se tratando de gestores exatamente desta área em órgão público, este aspecto torna-se preocupante. / Characterizing the meaning of leadership is an aspect that allows discussing the teacher\'s performance in the school and the possibility of advancement of differentiated environmental education (EE) projects inside and outside the classroom. The objective of this study is to characterize teachers\' leadership from the perspective of education and environment secretariats managers involved in EE at school and of teachers whom they indicate as those who are change agents in EE in schools. Four managers were consulted from their positions in public institutions and a semi-structured, recorded and transcribed interview was conducted with them for the choice of four teachers seen by these managers as leaders in EE in their schools. Of all the names given, the teachers were selected for the ease of being the only four known by the researcher. These teachers were interviewed with the same method of the managers\'. The answers were analyzed and compared question by question; so that regularities and tendencies could be found between conceptions of managers and teachers and for them to be discussed in relation to the construction of teaching leadership in EE. Based on the interviews, 6 focuses of analysis and their interpretations were proposed: 1 - Difference in the conception of teacher leadership by managers and teachers: both acknowledge that there are teachers in the public school who are capable of carrying out differentiated EE projects, but they are informal leaders Their valorization would be the greater support of the school board to facilitate the work and recognition of the teacher leaders; 2- Collective work of teacher leaders: teachers and managers recognize the central aspect of collaboration for the action of the teacher leader. However, it is seen by managers as \"a one-way street\" in which teachers collaborate with managers\' projects, but the opposite is not mentioned; 3 - Projects as the main work developed by the teacher leaders in EE: teachers and managers commented on the work with EE and perceived that the teacher leaders develop them inside and outside the classroom; 4 - Difficulties for the emergence of teacher leaders in EE in schools: teachers focus on the lack of support from colleagues and the forms of management that oversee their work. Most managers do not understand the specificities of teaching work; 5- Devaluation of leadership by managers and by system and EE in school: managers and teachers agree that there is a devaluation of teachers who are involved in changes; 6- The fragile relationship between making the school more democratic and participatory through the teacher leader and EE: teachers\' decision-making bodies such as School Boards and PPP and how they can be instruments of change for sustainability to be inserted at schools are not very well remembered. The specificities of EA for managers or teachers are not clear, since only one manager interviewed relates EA\'s fundamentals to actions at school. When dealing with managers of this area in a public body, this aspect becomes worrying.

<p><p>The ability to deal with change gains in importance due to the fast moving environment. The current crisis reveals that it is not sufficient for companies to react. They need to be prepared and implement change continuously. The significance of Change Management is justified as the competence to deal with change can be considered decisive for gaining competitive advantage. Organizations need to change in order to sustain.</p><p>Several theories and concepts exist to increase an organization's efficiency in terms of handling changes. The theoretical framework is settled on four issues within Change Management: change, drivers for change, implementation and roles in an organization. It is of prior importance to identify the nature of the specific change as well as the driving forces for it.</p><p>By this, information for the implementation process is provided. We present strategies for implementing and also steps or ingredients which have to be unconditionally considered. We try to point out some facilitators for implementation such as organizational learning.</p><p>We finally describe four key roles that are  influencing implementation of change. However, we especially focus on leaders and employees and compare top-down and bottom-up implementation.</p><p>We proceed with the same basis of four parts to analyze the discussions we led with change agents.</p><p>Finally we propose key factors we believe that organizations need to lead a change process successfully.</p></p>

The ability to deal with change gains in importance due to the fast moving environment. The current crisis reveals that it is not sufficient for companies to react. They need to be prepared and implement change continuously. The significance of Change Management is justified as the competence to deal with change can be considered decisive for gaining competitive advantage. Organizations need to change in order to sustain. Several theories and concepts exist to increase an organization's efficiency in terms of handling changes. The theoretical framework is settled on four issues within Change Management: change, drivers for change, implementation and roles in an organization. It is of prior importance to identify the nature of the specific change as well as the driving forces for it. By this, information for the implementation process is provided. We present strategies for implementing and also steps or ingredients which have to be unconditionally considered. We try to point out some facilitators for implementation such as organizational learning. We finally describe four key roles that are  influencing implementation of change. However, we especially focus on leaders and employees and compare top-down and bottom-up implementation. We proceed with the same basis of four parts to analyze the discussions we led with change agents. Finally we propose key factors we believe that organizations need to lead a change process successfully.