Leading school improvement: using Popper’s theory of learning

Abstract

ABSTRACT Leadership is a highly complex activity, as leaders respond to increasing diversity and external accountability. Additionally, there is increased recognition that leadership is deeply contextual, sensitive to macro-politics of systems and micro-politics of individual schools. In Ontario, Canada, the school improvement effort is focused on raising student achievement and ensuring equitable outcomes. The current provincial education policies across Canada require that principals focus on (1) increasing the proportion of students who meet educational expectations and (2) reducing the ‘achievement gaps’ amongst sub-groups of students within the public school system. Despite these efforts, in Ontario, schools continue to encounter difficulty in meeting the needs of all their students. A full pursuit of factors related to differences to students’ backgrounds and abilities is beyond the scope of this article. Rather, this article is concerned with how school can adopt Karl Popper’s theory of learning for school improvement efforts.