Dan E. Inbar

Developing a public school entrepreneurship inventory

Entrepreneurship is one of the fundamental strategies of business organizations. However, the unique characteristics of entrepreneurship in education have not been fully examined. This study examines the concept of entrepreneurship in a centralized educational system, presents a tool for measuring educational entrepreneurship, and demonstrates its relevance by inquiring into the relationship between a schools geo‐social location and entrepreneurial profiles. The public school entrepreneurship inventory was tested on a representative sample of 1,395 elementary school teachers within the Israeli public school system. The results demonstrate high reliability and convergent validity of the instrument. The study explores the different entrepreneurial profiles existing within the Israeli educational system, and demonstrates the instruments use in studying the degrees of freedom for school entrepreneurship in the same national expanse. The study has found that school entrepreneurship in the periphery is better able to exploit the freedom existing within the system than school entrepreneurship in the center. In all cases, however, this freedom is limited and schools’ entrepreneurship cannot go much beyond what is legitimized by the system. These findings are then explained by reference to the canonical mechanisms that serve as constant points of reference in a centralized educational system.

The process of self‐renewal among women headteachers in mid‐career

The purpose of this study was to expose the phenomenon of self‐renewal and its dynamic aspects among women headteachers in mid‐career. Based on findings from an exploratory study conducted among Israeli primary school women headteachers in their mid‐career period, the study presents the phenomenon of self‐renewal that was experienced by these headteachers. This phenomenon included elements such as coping with burnout crisis, critical inner reflection, reframing managerial perspectives, elation and energy replenishing and reinforcing innovative behaviors. A conceptual frame is presented in order to understand the process of self‐renewal and its contextual and biographic determinants which enable the existence of the phenomenon in mid‐career

A Metaphorical Insight into Educational Planning

Educational planning depends on the interaction between mental processes and social behaviour. The ongoing disparity between planning and implementation calls for a shift in attention from technical problems to the more conceptual. An alternative way of thinking about educational planning is discussed. The basic idea that a plan is a symbol means that someone ostensibly gives it meaning. Metaphorical images are one way of attaining insight into such meaning. By elaborating 11 groups of metaphorical images of planning, a bridge between expression and impression is offered. A conceptual frame relates the metaphorical analysis to approaches of educational policy. This might open up a whole new area of analysis essential to the understanding of educational planning as a social process of change.

Planning for Choice: The Educational Sociotechnological Challenge of the Future.

The purpose of this discussion is to show through an examination of five trends -socioeducational demands, local political empowerment, technological options, economic trends, and nonlinear planning-how the theme of choice is emphasized. The common denominator of these trends is the weakening of the authoritative status of the school and the strengthening of the notion of choice. Planning for choice becomes an attribute of future educational policy-making and planning. Because planning is a structuring process and choice is a loosening one, the idea of planning for choice contains inherent dialectic tension. The discussion offers a conceptual framework for educational policy-making and planning strategies that will respond to these trends and tensions.

The Cognitive Preferences of School Principals.

Explores the nature of the cognitive preferences of school administrators, thus opening up a new line of enquiry which may provide a base for future studies on administrative behaviour. The study offers an insight into the school administrators′ mode of information perception according to four basic modes: relating and recalling information without considering its implications; relating to information according to its practical applications; posing critical questions about the information′s validity; and relating to information according to the fundamental principles. School administrators were found to be different in their cognitive preferences as a function of individual differences, and different roles of school administration.

The Organisational Boundaries of Responsibility: An Ethical Challenge.

Undertaking responsibility is basic to moral behaviour. However, the explicit act of undertaking responsibility may be derived from various motives. The purpose here is to investigate to what extent organisations tend to bound the level of responsibility and to disclose some of the different motives of undertaking responsibility. This is done by employing four different theories of behaviour which relate to conformity, compliance, needs and moral development. Although none of these theories directly treats the question of responsibility, an attempt is made to apply each to it. By way of a summary, six generalised types of responsibility are suggested: responsibility based on anxiety, shame, guilt, arrangement, ethics and freedom. Furthermore, an organisational boundary line of responsibility is suggested.

Educational Planning: The Transformation of Symbols, Frames of Reference, and Behavior

Plans are not prescriptions or assembly guidance, and the concept of educational planning should not be confused with the rather dull perception that it is no more than the composition of a known sequence of steps to be carried out later: Assuming that educational planning is a communicative process, as the transmission of symbols the object of which is to bring about change based on perceptual modification and dependent on behavioral change, a transformational approach to educational planning is offered. This approach consolidates three basic transformations: of symbols, of frames of reference, and of behavior. The articulation of vision, the socialization of expectations, and empowerment are conceptualized as charismatic virtues of the approach, serving as the activating forces of the various transformations.