This book engages readers via the international contributions from "home" field sites around the world and international authors. Importantly, the various chapters address a wide spectrum of educational contexts -- ranging from higher education, to K-12 public and private schools, to prison schools. The realistic accounts portrayed in…

Drawing from a seminal article by Burton Clark that appeared in 2004 in "Higher Education Policy," this paper examines the influence of organization studies in higher education policy research over the last 25 years and highlights the potential contributions for future inquiry. It argues that analysis has mainly tackled policy reforms…

Len Barton is acutely aware of the power of the academy to either enhance critical thinking or to depress it. He is a true academic, never accepting the received wisdom or perspective of any given sociological standpoint, no matter how powerful or fashionable it was at the time. He has encouraged and promoted a unique blend of professional and…

This paper explores the potential for conducting collaborative and critical research in higher education which problematises the role and practices of the academy in maintaining exclusion. It begins with a brief discussion of UK government discourse on widening participation, and contrasts this with the research literature which indicates the…

Although individuals preparing for careers in educational administration have recognized the importance of the community for schools and school districts, they have often lacked a complex understanding of "community." This paper describes a community-study research project that was developed and implemented in a graduate educational administration…

"Student Powered" research, defined as a comprehensive reliance on or involvement of students as research staff members in all or most phases of a serious research effort, is discussed. It is suggested that there are several conditions necessary for student powered mail survey questionnaire research projects to be initiated, that there…

An approach to assess organizational change within the university is considered. The research approach was designed to use the strength of the university to examine and document an organizational change that evolved over time and resulted in unplanned outcomes is described. Important decisions that influenced the design of the survey instrument…

Research and instructional role strains are identified, based on the use of large-scale mail surveys for college self-study that are used to teach introductory research methodology. The two organizational hierarchies, the research model and the instructional model, are examined. Experiences at Northwestern University, Northeastern Illinois…