This volume is part of a series of monographs from Australia devoted to outlining an alternative approach, based on neo-Marxist concepts, to educational administration. The introductory essay in this volume attempts to develop and clarify the basis for an alternative, dialectical approach to educational administration, which emphasizes the importance of human agency in the administration of educational organizations. The first section outlines the Hegelian and Marxist concepts of dialectic and shows how a dialectical theory of agency and structure presents a much more convincing way of looking at educational administration than the structural-functionalist position which has tended to dominate the literature. The ensuing discussion draws upon the recent theoretical perspectives of Dahrendorf, Bourdieu, and Giddens to illustrate the dialectical interaction of structural logic with human agency in educational organizations. Four readings by separate authors follow: (1) "Structures, Strategies, and the Habitus," by Pierre Bourdieu; (2) "Power, the Dialectic of Control, and Class Structuration," by Anthony Giddens; (3) "A Structurationist Account of Political Culture," by Patricia Riley; and (4) "Interorganizational Dialectics," by Gerald Zeitz. An annotated bibliography is included. (TE)