Educational Research Journal , Vol. Page 167-183, Summer 2000 Bringing Narrative Inquiry to School Reform F. Michael Connelly D. Jean Clandinin Abstract Research on the massive, sustained, efforts to reform schools in North America and elsewhere shows dismal results.
Educational systems are remarkably resilient and resist change initiatives.
We draw on two decades of data on the study of change in one inner-city school. Rather than analyzing this data in terms of the accepted theories of school change, we develop a historical, narrative, understanding of school change. We critique the existing literature of school reform, offer an interpretation of one aspect of the dramatic changes that have occurred in Bay Street School, and give suggestions for conceptualizing school reform from a narrative perspective.