Bob L. Johnson

Principals and the Political Economy of Environmental Enactment.

Using Weick’s notion of environmental enactment as a sensitizing concept, this study explores how principals enact and structure the internal and external environment of the school. By examining what in the environment captures the attention of principals and why, an incipient theory of the environmental attention-structure is offered. The critical-incident technique, a grounded approach to theory building, generated 77 incidents of prolonged interaction with the environment among 18 principals. Findings suggest that the environmental attention-structure of the principals is driven by concerns for the potential accumulation and loss of legitimacy capital. Principals describe their cognitive processes for deliberating, weighing, and assessing the environmental entities and events in terms of gains or losses of legitimacy. Public choice theory, a variant of political economy theory, provides a useful lens for making sense of these processes.

The Politics of Research-Information Use in the Education Policy Arena

Once research results have been produced, how are they used? This article examines the politics of using information generated by research. The value-laden nature of any research provides policy makers with an important resource to further their political agendas. Information can be subject to numerous interpretations. Those policy makers who are skillful in using research information can frame the issues and solutions in ways that are compatible with their interests. In terms of influencing public policy, how policy makers use research findings may be as important as the findings themselves.

Those Nagging Headaches: Perennial Issues and Tensions in the Politics of Education Field

The politics of education is an exciting yet dynamic field of study. Consistent with the demands of systematic inquiry, it is imperative that those working in the field periodically assess its knowledge base, developmental needs, and level of theoretical maturity. Toward this end, the purpose of this article is to examine perennial issues, needs, and tensions within the field: issues associated with defining and focusing the field, problems with theoretical hegemony and group-think, addressing and bridging the macro-micro politics divide, and the challenges of sustaining conceptual and theoretical rigor. Implications of these tensions for the preparation of educational leaders in the political knowledge/skills domain are likewise examined. These issues and tensions are by no means exhaustive, yet they are indicative of the stresses and strains that have come to characterize the field as it seeks to come to grips with its identity.

A Sound Education for All: Multicultural Issues in Music Education

Establishing the legitimacy of the arts within the larger school curriculum is a defining issue in arts education. Within the context of this perennial challenge, this article examines two multicultural issues in music education: equal music education opportunity and the idiomatic hegemony of the Western classical tradition. Discussions of the essence of music, the current state of music education practice, competing demands within the field, and of the educational benefits associated with the study of music provide the context for this examination. No student, it is argued, should be denied access to the arts based on the property wealth of his or her district, household, or cultural background. If music is to remain a viable curricular option, music educators must adapt both curricula and methods to the cultural backgrounds and needs of a changing student population.

Micropolitical Dynamics of Education Interests: A View From Within

Using concepts and frameworks from political science and organizational theory, this article examines a set of defining micropolitical issues associated with education interest groups: the politics of group formation and maintenance, the politics of group governance, role and subunit politics, and the politics of ideology. Little conceptual and empirical research on the micropolitical dynamics of education interest groups can be found in the politics of education literature. This article provides a context for understanding the micropolitical dynamics of educational interests and seeks to encourage research in this area.

Introduction: Organization theory, educational leadership and educational research

– This essay argues that it is time to revisit and reintegrate the contributions of organization theory to the understanding of educational organizations and leadership., – The arguments presented in this essay are predicated on the following assumptions: a collective recognition of the rich theoretical and conceptual contributions the field of organization has made to the understanding of educational organizations and leadership; a concern that the pragmatic press of the current reform movement – with its preoccupation with outcome measures – would discourage efforts to pursue a theoretical and conceptual understanding of educational organizations; and a recognized need to re‐articulate the utility of the frameworks and concepts provided by organizational theory literature to the larger research community., – As a defining venue for social interaction, the organization provides a context for understanding this interaction. Organizations exhibit tendencies that exist in various human groups and provide the context for a variety of basic social processes. The numerous activities witnessed in educational organizations – leading, teaching, learning, counseling, coaching, etc. – take place in an organizational context. One cannot discuss these activities without considering the context in which they occur., – The value of this essay lies in the message it seeks to convey: it is time to revisit and reconsider the important role and contributions of the organizational theory literature with regard to educational research and the larger educational enterprise.

Building New Bridges: Linking Organization Theory with Other Educational Literatures.

Purpose – This paper provides an example of how organization theory can be linked with other literatures in a complementary and productive manner. Establishing a bridge between the organization theory and learning environment literatures, the authors seek to provide an example of how such literature‐bridging can enrich our understanding of the school‐classroom relationship.Design/methodology/approach – After providing a set of working criteria with which to assess the developmental maturity of a field, this paper provides a general review of the learning environments literature. This is followed by an examination of an important yet under‐explored relationship in this literature: the school‐classroom relationship. Using concepts from organizational theory, the authors seek to establish the utility these concepts have for understanding the relationship that exists between classroom‐ and school‐level learning environments.Findings – Given the importance of organization theory to our understanding of educati...

School learning environment, organizational structures and effectiveness: A synthesis of research in 443 schools

Abstract This chapter is a synthesis of findings from five research studies linking school learning environment and organizational characteristics to multiple indices of school effectiveness. Descriptions of a variety of new measures of school level environment characteristics are included and implications of the findings for research and theory development in the future study of school learning environments, schools as organizations and school effectiveness are discussed.

Towards Measurement of School Vision

Drawing on Blumberg and Greenfield′s studies of effective principals, offers an operational definition of school vision, based on teachers′ perceptions of that vision. The instrument developed consists of three subscales: (1) vision exchange – the principal′s effectiveness in exchanging his/her vision with the school community; (2) vision internalization – the principal′s effectiveness in getting others to internalize this vision, and; (3) vision sacrifice – the principal′s effectiveness in encouraging others to sacrifice for this vision. In an effort to validate the School Vision Inventory (SVI), three hypotheses were tested. The perceived robustness of the principal′s role was significantly correlated with two subscales of the SVI: exchange and sacrifice. Significant correlations were also found between teachers′ perceptions of the principal′s supervisory expertise and vision exchange and sacrifice. Finally, there were higher mean principal vision scores in schools where teachers perceived progress bein...

Reflections on EAQ's Past, Present, and Future

The purpose of this article is (a) to provide foundational findings from Roald Campbell’s (1979) assessment of Educational Administration Quarterly (EAQ); (b) to introduce EAQ articles assessing the journal since 1979 that will appear in upcoming issues of EAQ; (c) to update readers on recent journal changes, address journal misconceptions, and summarize subscriber, citation, and journal impact information; and (d) to outline current and future issues facing EAQ and the study of educational leadership and organizations. As current editors of the journal, our intent is to make EAQ processes and outcomes more transparent to readers and to potential authors.