Educational policy and administration is an applied human science that is a field of both study and practice. As such, it needs a theoretical framework--a theory of practice--for the understanding and informing of administrative practice. A theory of practice would be integrative; would focus on increasing understanding and improving practice, on…

Educational administration must abandon its focus on organization, based on hierarchy, legitimacy, and self-interest and develop its own identity. Families, communities, and friendship networks constitute alternative collections of people. To understand schools as communities, educational administration would need to address new questions,…

Although both professionalism and leadership are prescribed as cures for school problems, the two concepts are antithetical. The more professionalism is emphasized, the less leadership is needed. Teachers become more committed and self-managing when schools become true communities, freeing principals from the burden of trying to control people.…

This book argues that schools are unique places that require their own theories and practices. Chapter 1 examines the theories of leadership and the school practices that are currently taken for granted in school operation. Chapter 2 addresses the question of what kind of theory is appropriate to the schoolhouse. A framework for understanding…

The politics of division arises from applying formal organizational theories of governance, management, and leadership to schools. Rational-choice theory and cultural pluralism lack the unifying power of civic virtue. Creating a politics of virtue requires that we renew commitments to our nation's democratic legacy. Principals must practice…

Educational administration has been shaped by the metaphor of organization. From organizational and management theory, and from economics, the parent of organizational theory, educational administration has borrowed definitions of quality, productivity, and efficiency; strategies to achieve them; and theories of human nature and motivation.…