Search results

In this, the Walter D. Cocking Lecture for 1975, the author examines the emerging relationship between the professor of educational administration and the state governance of education in the U.S.A. The paper is developed around five critical issues, (1) increasingly major decisions for education will be made at the state level, (2) educators will have less autonomy in making these decisions, (3) many professors are essentially school district oriented with little sense of state action, (4) professors need additional understanding and appreciation of state level policy making, and (5) this increased understanding and appreciation should lead to revised programs for research and training in educational administration.

This study extends research on one of the most frequently cited school leadership frameworks by examining the psychometric properties of the instrument designed to assess many of the practices included in that framework.

Using data collected from 1,401 teachers the study examined the instrument’s measurement invariance, score reliabilities, as well as construct and predictive validities. Polytomous latent trait models (Many-Facet Rasch model), scale and principal component analysis using second-order Confirmatory Factor Analysis, and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM)-Path modelling were used for these purposes.

Findings report levels of score reliability and valid score inferences. Results concerning the predictive validity of the instrument indicate a complex set of relations among the domains of leadership practices measured by the instrument, variables selected as mediators of leaders’ influence, and their direct and indirect effects on student learning.

This study provides researchers with a reliable and valid instrument for use in their future research. Data for the study were provided by elementary teachers in one US state. The extent to which results of the instrument are valid across different cultural and organizational settings remains to be determined.

Leadership developers may find the instrument useful for assessing the strengths and weaknesses of those participating in their programs while leaders themselves many find the instrument useful for self-diagnosis.

This study contributes to the development of school leadership measures by including Rasch modeling among the methods used for examining the instrument’s psychometric properties.

The purpose of this paper was to conduct a critical analysis of the origins and implementation of problem‐based learning in educational administration as a window into the limitations of this approach and more generally administrator preparation.

The author reviewed the published work of the originator from 1970‐2009, as well as his preparation program for principals, and evaluated his approach primarily in light of two perspectives, emotional labor and positive emotions. The paper probes the utility of using these sociological and psychological perspectives in studying and understanding the emotional side of administration through interviews with principals.

The major finding of this analysis was to question whether sufficient attention is being paid to the emotional aspects of administration in problem‐based learning in particular and administrator preparation programs more generally. The analysis reveals several areas where more attention should be paid, and provides some insight into the nature of mental and emotional labor of principals.

The paper combines two theoretical approaches in a novel way to raise a series of questions that can be used to evaluate programs for preparing administrators in terms of a critical, but for the most part neglected, area – the emotional side of administration. For those who choose to incorporate this facet of administration into their preparation program, the author describes an approach that might be used.

Describes Willower’s considered and valued role as a professor and reviews aspects of his career. Notes how Willower advocated bringing the work of the practitioner and the scholar closer together and the need to blend knowledge, values, and method. These characteristics contributed to Willower’s substantial role in the foundation and continuing development of the University Council for Educational Administration.

The case method of teaching educational administration presents the student or class with a “chunk of reality” — a record of a complex problem situation to which no solution is provided. The student must initially take the situation apart before it can be understood and a solution suggested. The method appears to be more firmly entrenched in educational administration now than it has ever been in the past. Further, its use appears to be so well accepted that one should look for a wider use in the future rather than any lessening in frequency. The use of the method has changed somewhat; there is now being introduced a structured approach to exist alongside of the permissive approach. Cases are now being filmed, and the filmed cases appear to have values which are not present in the written cases. Further, simulation techniques are being widely adopted in U.S. universities.

In the United States in 1957 a fresh intellectual excitement emerged within the field of educational administration; high hopes were held for the potential contribution of theory‐oriented research. But in retrospect from 1967 the promise of the decade does not appear to have been fulfilled. Vast Federal funding has proven to be only a mixed blessing. An obsessional preoccupation with “change” has diverted efforts away from basic research, has induced intellectual homogenization within the academic community, and has bombarded administrators with so many exigencies that their planning efforts have been increasingly concentrated upon short‐term perspectives, at best. Never before have politics, education and welfare been commingled so incestuously. Four serious concerns that must now be dealt with in our graduate programs are: the mythology of human motivations; the juggernant of “the Technological Society”; the mythology of change; and the impact of existentialism upon modern man.

The change from the “mechanistic” to the “behavioural” view of the administration process is discussed and the point emphasized that the work of the administrator is essentially concerned with the relationship between organizational and personal needs. It is argued that the implications of this for the training of administrators are the necessity for (1) a broadly based liberal education, (2) training in the technologies of the organization he is to administer, (3) some intensive work in the area of the social sciences, and (4) at least a year spent in the study of administration as an applied science.

Reviews the extraordinary contribution made to educational administration by Donald J. Willower who died in January, 2000. During his 40 years at The Pennsylvania State University Willower made a profound contribution to the field in general and to the study of values, leadership, pupil control ideology, organisation theory, change, and methods of inquiry in particular. Willower was Distinguished Professor of Education for the closing decade of his career – an appropriate acknowledgment of his outstanding teaching, research, and professional service to the field. For 20 years he was a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of JEA.

The approach used here to the study of philsophical influences on educational administration is an examination of case studies of administrative decisions in educational organizations where the decisions are considered as dependent variables, and the value and/or fact bases of the decisions are considered as independent variables. Nine such case studies are summarized. Decision‐making which deals with educational purpose is viewed as one significant area in educational administration where philosophical consideration can be studied. The study of correlations between administrative decisions and the value and factual bases should make contributions toward the prediction of administrative decisions. Additional significance of this study should focus on the development of strategies to influence or change administrative decisions.

“Rational planning models” emerged in the early 1970's as a means by which to plan more effectively and efficiently in educational organizations. One of the most well known and widely distributed of these models was developed by Phi Delta Kappa, the educational fraternity. This paper describes a field study conducted in five Vermont schools that were “early users” of the Phi Delta Kappa material. The outcomes reveal many discrepancies between the theory and the reality of planning in public schools. In addition to the Vermont research, other research is cited that supports many of the findings and relates them to planning in schools in general. The article concludes by linking the study outcomes to recent works by other authors on the emerging concepts of loosely coupled systems, garbage can organizations, and organized anarchies and implications these concepts hold for alternative approaches to planning in educational settings.