Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe the variations in the ways that principals conceptualize their basis of power in schools. Design/methodology/approach: Phenomenography was used as the research method of this study. The interviewees consisted of 16 principals, eight from public schools and eight from private schools. Findings: The…

Purpose: The use of data for instructional improvement is prevalent in today's educational landscape, yet policies calling for data use may result in significant variation at the school level. The purpose of this paper is to focus on tools and routines as mechanisms of principal influence on data-use professional learning communities (PLCs).…

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to present a comprehensive framework for capturing the complex concept the authors call school improvement. Design/methodology/approach: The author begins by anchoring that framework on an historical understanding of school improvement. The framework itself is then presented. Five dimensions are described: the…

Purpose: This paper aims to offer a theoretical framework for linking school ethical climate with teachers' voluntary absence. The paper attempts to explain this relationship using the concept of affective organizational commitment. Design/methodology/approach: Participants were 1,016 school teachers from 35 high schools in Israel. Data were…

Purpose: In response to the growing need for educational leaders who possess ethical, critical and reflective qualities, a training program was developed based on ethics as a reflective critical capacity and on Starratt's three-dimensional model. This paper aims to describe the impact of the program on ethical decision making and on educational…

There is a need to develop an interdisciplinary information base of publications related specifically to theory methodology and construction. Existing information sources focus primarily on the dissemination of ccompleted research project results. (Author/WM)

This paper explores the nature of the contribution that can be made to administrative theory by recent developments in the philosophy of science and the emerging new views of science: notably, the arguments of Richard Bates and Thomas Greenfield. These emerging views of science can sustain a science of administration that escapes their major…

To use universities effectively in the development of critical administrative skills, we need to attend to the problems posed by the context of decline and by the nature of educational organizations, managerial work, and university comparative advantage. Five analytical skills are identified as satisfying such criteria. (Author)

This analysis found that a set of examiners' reports on educational theses subscribe to a common conception of critical thinking that combines detached rationality with imaginative insight. This functional definition represents assumptions taken from traditional and emergent research traditions in educational administration. (TE)

Criteria are set forth for a philosophy that could contribute to advancement in educational administration. Three broad areas are covered: (1) the ideas and methods of educational administration; (2) communication and verification in the field; and (3) values and the normative side of education. (TE)

During the 1980s, the established, time-honored theoretic concepts of the past four decades (emphasizing mathematical proof and laboratory science thinking) yielded to newer, richer ways of understanding organizations. Three new streams of thought (effective schools research, the reform movement, and human resources theory) have given…

Criticizes James S. Kaminsky's position that a 1970 memo by A. W. Jones, then South Australian Director General of Education--which prescribed administrative decentralization in the region's school systems--brought about the democratization of those systems. (MCG)

Rebuts Alan Smithson's critiques of the author's prior position that a 1970 memo by A. W. Jones, then South Australian Director General of Education--which prescribed administrative decentralization in the region's school systems--brought about the democratization of those systems. (MCG)

This paper provides a discussion of the role of school leaders in establishing democratic principles in a post-conflict society. Drawn primarily from the author's experiences in Kosovo, the paper briefly introduces the historical and contemporary socio-political context of the region, and then examines the role of school administrators in a…