Donald J. Willower

The Handbook of Organizations

creased attention being given to the school as an organization. The Handbook of Organizations, undertaken &dquo;to summarize and report the present state of knowledge about human organizations&dquo; (p. ix), should prove to be an important and valuable source book for students of organizations, including professors, graduate students, and others who focus their research efforts on educational organizations.

Organizational Culture in a Good High School

Observations and interviews were conducted in a high school, selected because of high student achievement scores, controlled for socioeconomic status, and a reputation for excellence. An organizational culture that cut across school groups including students, was found. It was grounded in academics and school spirit. A set of reinforcing elements was proposed as the reason for the culture. It included: administrators, teachers, parents, and a school board committed to academic study; a community whose main employer was a medical centre and which was perceived to be education‐oriented; many students who associated academic success with material success and popularity; and a school superintendent who acted as a catalyst. If students are to be part of a school′s organizational culture, reinforcing elements equivalent to those found are probably crucial. They counteract the oppositional student and adult subcultures that are so common in schools.

Dewey’s Theory of Inquiry and Reflective Administration

John Dewey′s thought is the premier philosophic source on reflective methods. Examination of his thought has much to offer current work on reflective administration. It provides philosophical grounding and an intellectual and ethical context for the use of reflective methods in administrative practice and preparation. Reviews relevant features of Dewey′s philosophy and shows implications for the use of reflective methods in educational administration.

Inquiry in Educational Administration and the Spirit of the Times

A naturalistic perspective on inquiry is presented as a compelling philosophy for educational administration. It is grounded in a view of inquiry as open, growing, self-corrective, and fallible, ending in tentative explanations that are plausible and probable given current knowledge. Ethical inquiry is similar to scientific inquiry. Those facing moral choices can use its methods to explore the likely consequences of alternatives with the aim of attaining valued outcomes while mitigating negative consequences. Initially, it is shown that the influence of philosophical positivism and sociological functionalism on educational administration is greatly exaggerated by some, often those espousing various forms of subjectivism, critical theory, postmodernism, and identity politics. Those views fit the current spirit of the times as reflected in academic disciplines that influence educational administration. Nevertheless, the meaning of concepts with a history ought to reflect that history and not be dictated by ideology.

School Organizations: Perspectives in Juxtaposition.

A structure-context perspective on schools is presented and used as a vehicle for the comparative and critical examination of work on loose coupling, schools as institutional organizations, and administrator activity.

Contemporary Issues in Theory in Educational Administration

Donald J. Willower is a Professor of Education in the Division of Education Policy Studies at The Pennsylvania State University. The article is based on a paper presented to a UCEA- University of Wisconsin spon sored Career Development Seminar held in memory of the late William J. Davis, former EA Q Editorial Board Member, at Madison, Wisconsin, March 1980.

Evolution in the Professorship: Past, Philosophy, Future

The professorship in educational administration is considered in terms of its recent past-the times and the context. Then aphilosophical position is advanced along with implications for the professorship. Finally, in light of the past and the philosophical position, some suggestions are made for the future.

Student Brinkmanship and the School as a Social System.

Student and teacher attitudes toward student brinkmanship, behavior that challenges the authority system of the school while avoiding negative sanctions, were examined in this study, and possible consequences of student brinkmanship for the schools social system were discussed.

Barriers to change in educational organizations

If changes are to be initiated in school systems, there should be awareness of the kinds of resistance that are likely to occur. This article examines the sources of resistance and the forms that these may take. The author is associate professor of education at The Pennsylvania State University.

The School and Environmental Robustness: An Initial Inquiry.

Employing the Robustness Semantic Differential (RSD) scale for the concept My School as the dependent variable in a series of exploratory multiple regression analyses and using factor scores from 15-factor, 6-factor, and 3-factor versions of the Learning Environment Inventory (LEI) and item scores from the Principal Performance Description Survey (PPDS) as four separate sets of independent variables with 188 secondary students responding, robustness was found to be positively related to perceptions of clear goal direction, cohesiveness, a lack of academic competitiveness, diversity, an absence of feelings of alienation, and favorable interpersonal relationships between students as well as the frequency with which a school principal is seen at school activities and seen watching over students at school activities. The RSD was employed as the dependent variable, and the My School Inventory (MSI)-a 5-factor adaption of the LEI for use with elementary students-and the items from the elementary school version ...