This book discusses principals' prerequisites and work within the five Nordic countries and focuses on schools as formal institutions that carry out functions delegated to them by the social collective. It includes a discussion about what kind of state policy demonstrates autonomy in Nordic schools, as well as the ways in which school leaders as…

This book examines the educational role of three international organizations created as part of the post-World War II multilateral architecture: the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the World Bank, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). These organizations have significantly…

Employing a social justice framework, this book provides educational leaders and practitioners with tools and strategies for grappling with the political fray of education politics. The framework offers ways to critique, challenge, and alter social, cultural, and political patterns in organizations and systems that perpetuate inequities. The…

This open access book provides a comprehensive overview and in-depth coverage of contemporary aspects of leadership in the field of education in Finland. It brings together Finnish scholars to critically explore and discuss leadership in education in the context of the Finnish education system and in relation to international discourses around the…

This book contains vital information on the historical, philosophical, and legal foundations for shared governance, and it makes the link between fundamentals of law and policy as related to professional practice in student affairs. Practical insights and suggestions for student affairs are offered for practitioners at all levels to ensure…

Why have many developing countries that have succeeded in expanding access to education made such limited progress on improving learning outcomes? There is a growing recognition that the learning crisis constitutes a significant dimension of global inequality and also that educational outcomes in developing countries are shaped by political as…

This book represents a set of critical analyses of educational reforms where issues of transnational governance are of vital concern. It focuses on different aspects of, and practices in educational reform-making, and in particular on governing techniques and the working of new agencies such as supranational and multinational organizations. In…

This book explores ways in which educational leaders can apply the wisdom of the Tao in their day-to-day work in schools. It offers an alternative to the standard ways of western thinking to give the leader more possibilities when confronting a situation. We tend to value immediate and decisive action, winning, directing, and getting one's way.…

America's education system faces a stark dilemma: it needs governmental oversight, rules and regulations, but it also needs to be adaptable enough to address student needs and the many different problems that can arise at any given school--something that large educational bureaucracies are notoriously bad at. Paul Hill and Ashley Jochim offer here…

"The Infrastructure of Accountability" brings together leading and emerging scholars who set forth an ambitious conceptual framework for understanding the full impact of large-scale, performance-based accountability systems on education. Over the past 20 years, schools and school systems have been utterly reshaped by the demands of…

"Democracy has to be born anew every generation, and education is its midwife," wrote John Dewey in his classic work "The School and Society." In "School, Society, and State", Tracy Steffes places that idea at the center of her exploration of the connections between public school reform in the early twentieth century and American political…

The knowledge work of higher education is carried out in every country in a differentiated structure that divides and allocates tasks within and among institutions; Certain features of differentiation are likely to be common among national systems: the basic sectioning of the natural sciences in such fields as physics, chemistry, and biology, and…

An extensive project involving formal and informal interviews and examination of university documents revealed that the governance of British universities does not coincide with any single stereotype. Decisions are made within institutions in ways that are subtle and complex, and that maintain both academic freedom and a significant degree of…

A retrospective look is taken at the internal workings of a reform of university governance in the Netherlands, including a description of the relations between the various actors involved. It was found that a state of equilibrium has not yet been reached, but the most acute stages of the transition have passed. Then a broader look is taken at…

In this book, eight contributors examine issues related to the likely effects of the decentralization of school governance on educational practice. Two major themes emerge in the book. The first (chapters 1 through 4) is that governance reforms in education may have little to do with what actually happens in schools, but have much to do with…