This article explores the previously quite marked absence from English policy debates on 14-19 education of issues that, in other developed countries, would be seen as key elements in the policy landscape. These are: the role of employers as providers of learning; the structure of employers' demand for skills, their recruitment and selection…

Over the past decade, the United Kingdom's central government education-reform program has created new leadership and management tasks. Key questions have arisen about how leaders will work to achieve the core purpose of their schools. This paper is based on a review of 15 major research studies that examined the impact of recent educational…

The coordinator role is being increasingly used to provide curricular leadership in both primary and secondary schools. This article analyzes difficulties and unintended consequences that can emerge when a low-key management approach is adopted. "Low-key" sometimes translates to low visibility, recognition, and status, which can…

Changes in the educational qualifications and skills expected of senior managers in the United Kingdom were examined through interviews with senior managers and human resource professionals in 17 large companies from a range of sectors. The following were identified as common objectives or responsibilities of senior managers: determining the…

There are many forms of school decentralization within and among countries. This paper presents findings of a study that compared decentralization efforts in England and the United States to identify changes that have been made in school-management structures and the effect of these changes on school operation. Data were derived from: (1)…

This book attempts to take a whole school view of approaches to making learning central, so that staffing and structures, external links and resources, are all dealt with in examining ways in which learning schools can evolve. The belief is that unless every aspect of a school's life is put under scrutiny, an emphasis on learning will remain an…

It is proposed that fiscal, technological, and societal pressures on higher education around the world require new administrative approaches and faculty-administrative collaboration to ensure institutional stability, even survival. Recommended techniques are outlined. Notes on government policies for higher education in Australia, Sweden, and the…

Purpose: To explore the reflections of primary headteachers on a series of major policy initiatives introduced by successive Conservative and Labour governments from 1988 to 2003. Design/methodology/method: The methodology is an interview-based survey of six headteachers. The interviews were structured around the headteachers' recollections of…

The findings reported here are part of a larger study of the role of middle managers in the UK further education colleges. The study proposes and discusses a typology for the middle manager role, analyses factors which facilitate and impede managers in role, and models the interaction of the college environment with the role. This process gives…

This book offers an in-depth understanding of the unique challenges and contributions of urban primary schools. The authors set urban education in the wider social context of structural disadvantage, poverty, oppression and exclusion, and reassert some critical urban educational concerns. Recognizing that practice needs to be informed by theory,…

This paper advocates combining two commonly employed perspectives--the cultural and the political--to overcome the limitations of using either perspective alone to explain and evaluate interactions within educational-administration settings. The mix of concepts adopted within cultural or political perspectives varies, which leads to differing…

Changes in authority relationships in the British government recently have had major consequences for the power of local administrators; a national report found an increased politicization of administrators in local government. This paper explores whether similar changes had taken place in educational administration. The effects of changes in…

Discusses the use of integrated information systems in corporate settings and describes a conceptual model. Topics discussed include hardware and software, including standards; data incompatibility; problems of information access; senior management needs; organizational culture; training and personnel issues; and the impact of organizational…

This report discusses the governing bodies in United Kingdom schools of higher education which were restructured after the Education Act of 1988, and examines how they can best meet the demands which will be put upon them by the reforms announced in the White Paper "Education and Training for the 21st Century" and the Further and Higher…