Organizational Literacy for Educators

by Jason Earle, Sharon D. Kruse

Overview

Teachers and administrators who understand the "politics" in schools can operate more successfully to facilitate change. This text teaches educators to identify and influence common social patterns that affect their work in school organizations. It combines literature from educational leadership and foundations of education to provide a comprehensive introduction to organizational theories related to schooling. A particularly notable feature is that in addition to traditional bureaucratic and political approaches, there is a substantial focus on recent critical and feminist theories. Extensive use of narrative vignettes makes the theories accessible for prospective and practicing teachers. Practice cases and exercises assist students in applying the theories to their own organization settings.

Assuming little prior knowledge of theories about school organizations, this volume is intended as a text for introductory graduate courses, as well as for advanced undergraduate courses, and groups such as site-based management teams and district professional development committees.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781135684686
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	02/01/1999
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	270
File size:	379 KB

About the Author

Jason Earle, Sharon D. Kruse

Table of Contents

Contents: Preface. Organizational Literacy and Social Patterns. Bureaucratic Social Patterns and Schools. Political Social Patterns and Schools. Communal Social Patterns and Schools. Patterns of Inequality: Earlier Critical Approaches to Schooling. Patterns of Inequality: More Recent Critical Approaches to Schooling. Patterns of Inequality: Feminist Approaches to Schooling. Complexity and School Organizations. Cases for Analysis.

Editorial Reviews

"This book has many strengths worth noting.....Earle and Kruse's writing style is a strength in that they are able to present very dense material in a clear and coherent manner....each chapter offers vignettes....at the end of each chapter is a tightly written summary, a practice case study, related exercies, a section entitled Reading Your Own School, and a recommended readings list....This book could...be used in conjunction with school and/or district-wide change and restructuring initiatives and for staff development purposes. Regardless of position (e.g., student, teacher, administrator, professor), this is a book worth securing for your library."
—The British Journal of Educational Psychology

"This excellent text is applicable beyond the confines of education and is most appropriate for junior and senior undergraduates in education, educational administration, and management classes and in introductory graduate courses in education, educational administration, and school counseling."
—CHOICE

"At the edge of the envelope in thinking in its field....Exceptionally well-grounded in current, relevant theory and research....If education in the United States cannot successfully counteract political efforts to standardize it, by re-establishing the legitimacy and desirability of giving emphasis to fairness, equity, equality of opportunity, and individualization of treatment, we shall surely lose whatever recognition we may have deserved for establishing a noteworthy system of public schools. This book promises to encourage and help people to think productively about these kinds of issues and concerns."
—George Crawford
University of Kansas

From the Publisher