This article critically examines two sets of ideas that have influenced educational reform in the recent past: managerialism and market approaches. It is argued that while each can be demonstrated to have led to useful change, neither provides a basis for future improvement in education. A recent example of change within the State School sector of South Australia is used to provide a grounding point for the development of a set of principles to guide future reform. These principles draw on a well-established set of ideas: that of educational systems as "loosely coupled" and recent advances in the application of complex systems concepts to organizational management. These concepts, and the South Australian example, suggest the potential benefits from using self-organizational properties to improve institutional learning. Unlike the "rationalist" management and market approaches, the alternative model emphasizes the need for a focus on people, relationships and learning rather than structures and centrally determined standards for conformance. (Contains 3 figures and 1 note.)