Rethinking the role of leadership in general education reform

Abstract

It is no secret in higher education that despite enormous collective energy, efforts, and resources, many institutions have been less than successful in reforming general education (ge) curricula (Gaff, 1980). Reform efforts are commonly fraught with challenges and poor success rates (Dennis, Halbert, & Phillips, 2010; Kotter, 1996; Zemsky, 2009). Gaston and Gaff, in their 2009 publication Revising General Education—and Avoiding the Potholes, note at least fifty different reasons why ge reform is so difficult. They also offer a wide range of practical advice for successfully revising general education. They sug-gest, for example, that those engaged in meaningful reform need to define the problem that needs to be fixed, engage in program planning, be mindful of task force procedures, and oversee program implementation. Almost all of their suggestions can be reduced to a single common denominator: Good leader-ship is critical to nearly all reform challenges (Burney & Perkins, 2010; Fear, Adamek, & Imig, 2002; Gano-Phillips & Barnett, 2008; Kotter, 1996). Gaff (1980) has warned that “task forces usually bring much talent and enthusiasm t