An Investigation into State-Level Paradigm Change and Politics in Education: Ohio’s Transformational Dialogue for Public Education

Most American educational systems have failed to respond to the societal transformation from the Industrial to the Information Age (Banathy, 1991; Duffy FM and Reigeluth CM, Educ Technol:41–49, 2008; Jenlink PM (ed), Systemic change: Touchstones for the future school. Arlington Heights: IRI/Skylight Training and Publishing, 1995; Reigeluth CM, The imperative for systemic change. Educational Technology Publications, Englewood Cliffs, 1994). In recognition of knowledge work as today’s predominant kind of work, educational institutions should respond to such changed societal demands and endeavor to foster skill sets for solving complex problems. Considering that many education reform efforts failed to achieve desired goals, scholars started developing design theories for high-level leaders. As such, Kim (Transformational dialogue for public education: 50-State Strategy. Knowledge Works Foundation, Cincinnati, 2008) introduced a state-level paradigm change process called the Transformational Dialogue for Public Education (TDPE), which was implemented in the state of Ohio from 2007 to 2012. The TDPE is intended to promote long-term dialogues and avenues of collaboration to help state leaders foster the transformation of their state’s public education systems. After analyzing extensive data, we found that the TDPE initiative in Ohio was heavily rooted in politics. Considering its significance, we identified three sub-themes related to politics that affected the dialogues: (1) polarized political parties, (2) lack of communication during the political transition, and (3) selective agenda on topics. In addition, this report describes the TDPE process in Ohio, addressing the context, process, and outcomes of the paradigm change initiative.