This article employs a system analytic framework to categorize the available research literature on the politics of education in order to explain the inter‐relationship of private…
Abstract
This article employs a system analytic framework to categorize the available research literature on the politics of education in order to explain the inter‐relationship of private and public interests and of different levels in primary and secondary American schools. The objectives are several: to explain and develop the analytical framework of David Easton; to illustrate its heuristic utility by categorizing empirically‐based research within the components of that framework, and to suggest and encourage future research directions in the subject. Education has escaped application of traditional policy analysis in America because educators have convinced scholars and laymen that they are “non‐political,” a label which even most political scientists have accepted without challenge. However, during the 1960s, a few scholars in education and political science began to apply political analytical methods to public school conflict. This research has begun to change perceptions of education and to provide a beginning set of research projects whose data support tentative generalization about the policy‐making process and the total system of public schools. This orientation is bound to increase because of increasing national government intervention in local schools, both through integration and financial policies. These have provoked growing conflict locally over the proper direction of school policies. In this article, we see how such stress is transmitted in the form of “demands” and “supports” into the “political system”, that persistent social mechanism known in all societies in different forms provides an “authoritative allocation of values and resources”. The political system, in this case public school bodies, “converts” such “inputs” into “outputs” of public policy, which in their administration create outcomes which later cause a “feedback” into the political system as the material for new policy demands. For each component of this Eastonian system, this article examines relevant research, providing an extensive annotated bibliography. From this review, it is possible to suggest lines of needed research.
Frederick Wirt and Samuel E. Krug
Seeks to shift the focus of the study of leadership from behavior to cognitions. Uses a set of leaders, 1,200 principals in six American states, and employs an earlier validated…
Abstract
Seeks to shift the focus of the study of leadership from behavior to cognitions. Uses a set of leaders, 1,200 principals in six American states, and employs an earlier validated set of five leadership cognitions drawn from psychologists in educational administration. The consistency of these scales is determined by alpha scores and correlations to establish there was no influence on them from contextual factors like state, political culture, and school size. Then, regression analysis demonstrates these leadership cognitions do exist independently of many social and personal qualities around principals. Thus, they are independent of the local politics of schools, characteristics of the school population, and personal qualities. However, leadership cognitions are strongly predicted by a professional network (i.e. supportive superintendents and faculty, as well as hard work) and with the size of schools.
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Nobody concerned with political economy can neglect the history of economic doctrines. Structural changes in the economy and society influence economic thinking and, conversely…
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Nobody concerned with political economy can neglect the history of economic doctrines. Structural changes in the economy and society influence economic thinking and, conversely, innovative thought structures and attitudes have almost always forced economic institutions and modes of behaviour to adjust. We learn from the history of economic doctrines how a particular theory emerged and whether, and in which environment, it could take root. We can see how a school evolves out of a common methodological perception and similar techniques of analysis, and how it has to establish itself. The interaction between unresolved problems on the one hand, and the search for better solutions or explanations on the other, leads to a change in paradigma and to the formation of new lines of reasoning. As long as the real world is subject to progress and change scientific search for explanation must out of necessity continue.
Richard C. Hunter and Frank Brown
As the primary target of the school reform movement, urban education remains the most difficult to assess and repair. Indeed, the crisis evident in urban school systems mirrors…
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As the primary target of the school reform movement, urban education remains the most difficult to assess and repair. Indeed, the crisis evident in urban school systems mirrors many of the problems found in big cities themselves — poor economic conditions for schools and families, personnel shortages and high turnover rates, improper facilities and materials, and political struggles over issues of structure and control. This book analyzes the problems effecting urban schools and their students and some of the efforts that have been developed to make these schools more accountable and effective.
Barrie O. Pettman and Richard Dobbins
This issue is a selected bibliography covering the subject of leadership.
Abstract
This issue is a selected bibliography covering the subject of leadership.
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Marxism‐Leninism has played an instrumental role in the achievementand consolidation of a hitherto unparalleled concentration of power bythe Communist Party of the Soviet Union…
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Marxism‐Leninism has played an instrumental role in the achievement and consolidation of a hitherto unparalleled concentration of power by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The key aspects of this ideology are: (1) the concept of a Vanguard Party led by professional revolutionaries which possesses the true Marxist class consciousness unattainable by the workers themselves; and (2) Lenin′s distinction between strategy and tactics. While the ultimate strategic goal is the worldwide overthrow of capitalism, the tactical steps by which this goal is to be achieved must continuously be adapted to the prevailing requirements of time, place and circumstances. There is no indication, so far, that perestroika represents the abandonment of the strategic goal of world revolution; rather, it is one more tactical response to the newest and most severe Soviet crisis. Like past “reforms”, it is aimed at saving the power of the Communist Party and the new class it has created.
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André Gide's prophetic words during an interview at Karlsbad in 1933: “Hitler represents a delay in the progress of humanity. There will be another peaceful Revolution in Spirit �…
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André Gide's prophetic words during an interview at Karlsbad in 1933: “Hitler represents a delay in the progress of humanity. There will be another peaceful Revolution in Spirit — different from Capitalism, Socialism‐Communism and Fascism — which will guide the development of humanity to its right destination.”
Whenever capitalism in the West appears to be dragging with unresolved problems, then quite a few people, including professional economists, begin to think that perhaps socialism…
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Whenever capitalism in the West appears to be dragging with unresolved problems, then quite a few people, including professional economists, begin to think that perhaps socialism is a better alternative. Conversely, in the East even a larger number of people, including economists (who are not activists), seriously believe that in view of their shortages and meagre incomes capitalism would be a better alternative.