Paving the way for sustainable educational change: Reconceptualizing what it means to make educational changes that last

This position paper provides an alternative theoretical framework of sustainable second-order educational change. Here, sustainability refers to: 1) substantial changes made that affect the core of educators’ everyday practice; 2) a longitudinal process that begins when educators contemplate making changes and ends when satisfactory achievement on the other characteristics is reached and overt learning efforts are stopped; 3) a process of individual and organizational learning as well as changes in behaviors; resulting in 4) significant positive effects on student outcomes. Thus, this definition focuses on educators and their schools, not on professional development programs. Methodological considerations are provided.