Education is undergoing rapid and extensive change everywhere to make students more creative and innovative in order to develop them as good citizens who are social responsible. The schools of developing countries in Asia, Europe and America are facing challenges in developing students’ criticality and creativity in the age of global change because of the low growth economy, lack of modern technology and neo-liberal education policies. This study examines the broader changes in education that are currently impacting on school practices, the challenges they bring, and the ways leadership within schools utilise opportunities for developing creative students in Bangladesh. In this regard, this study will report how the leadership of one secondary school critically understands and deals with (or does not) the social and educational changes that face schooling in Bangladesh. Creative change is expected in various secondary schools in Bangladesh, as it is in other developing countries in Europe and America though it takes time depending on the context and situation.

The speed and breadth of school change in some European countries is astounding; its place in the field of education in Bangladesh is significant but there is need to consider the influence of changes in secondary schools as they going through reformation in recent years.  Changing direction is not easy, especially for Bangladeshi secondary schools (Salahuddin, 2012; NAEM & Brac, 2004). It depends on the different factors of the school: how the school define what it does, makes its decisions, and responds to parents and the community as well as how instruction is delivered, accountability is defined and how the principal does his/her jobs (Smith, 2008).

This paper reports the first stages of my Doctoral study that investigates what creative changes through leadership are taking place in an urban secondary school, and how the current social and political, national and international changes impact on students’ development in this school. As a researcher from a developing country, I seek to deliver a complex theoretical and practical idea of school change and creativity through this study. The following research questions will lead this study:

1. What are the factors that influencing the ongoing changing efforts in a school? How are these change factors evolving and impacting on school development?
2. What are the leadership characteristics that enhance the change process and creativity of the school?

Theoretically this study is framed on Fullan’s works of school change and improvement. For school improvement, change in the school culture is more essential than the physical and structural change. Fullan (2007) argues that changing the existing school culture is more crucial rather than structural change, formal requirements and event-based activities. School culture covers teaching-learning process, professional commitment and quality of teachers, practice of curricular and co-curricular activities, communication with society and how they practise their social norms and values and so on (Fullan, 2007; Stoll & Fink, 1996). The changes must be theoretical and practical to be sustainable Fullan’s (2005).

Cohen, L., Manion, L., & Morrison, K. (2011). Research methods in education (7¬th ed.). London: Routledge Falmer. Fullan, M. (2007). The new meaning of educational change. New York: Teachers College Press. Fullan, M. (2005). Leadership & Sustainability: System thinkers in action. California: Crown Press. Gay, L. R., Mills, G. E. & Airasian, P. (2006, 8th ed.). Educational research: Competencies for analysis and applications. Singapore: Pearson NAEM & Brac (2004). School management: Learning from successful schools in Bangladesh. Gazipur: Brac Printers. Salahuddin, A. N. M. (2012). Changing schools: What does it mean? NEW AGE. Retrieved from http://www.newagebd.com/detail.php?date=2012-06-08&nid=12972 Smith, L (2008). School that change: Evidence-based improvement and effective change leadership. Thousand Oaks: Corwin Press. Stoll, L. & Fink, D. (1996). Changing our schools: Linking school effectiveness and school improvement. Buckingham: Open University Press