In this article, I present a way of understanding how to overcome violence through dialogue and the democratic organization of group relations. The goal is to discuss how this approach to overcoming violence in an NGO (nongovernmental organization) revealed the need to be flexible, to listen to each other, and to be willing to create a new unknown…

Background: Team-based instructional change is a promising model for improving undergraduate STEM instruction. Teams are more likely to produce sustainable, innovative, and high-quality outcomes than individuals working alone. However, teams also tend to involve higher risks of failure and can result in inefficient allocation of valuable…

Introduction: Many health professionals believe they practice collaboratively. Providing insight into their actual level of collaboration requires a means to assess practice within health settings. This chapter reports on the development, testing, and refinement process for the Assessment of Interprofessional Team Collaboration Scale (AITCS).…

Foundations must encourage rigorous debate over objectives, strategies, and outcomes as they become more engaged in policy-focused giving. In doing this, they must make it abundantly clear that they won't blacklist critics. The value of skeptics is that they raise unpleasant issues and make it possible for those inside an organizational bubble to…

Modes of organisation and control within educational organisations have tended to accord with those of the workplace. Bureaucracy has endured in both. Of late, it has been loosened. This has opened up a new conceptual space within educational management and leadership. Its underlying theme is collaboration. The analysis here extends the space…

Over the course of the last several decades, K-12 educational systems have begun to adopt digital technologies to support teaching and learning. These tools have enabled the rise of online schools as well as fundamentally changing practices of school leadership. However little attention has been given to how instructional leadership is changed…

The author's career experiences--as an impartial observer of community building, as an advocate working from within urban communities, and as a catalyst working from the outside--have given him a unique perspective into the dynamics of institutional/community engagement. "Basically, they have left me with three overriding convictions. First,…

I reflect on the preceding five contributions in this issue by focusing on the power dimensions of participation. I emphasize how power underlies and frames not only the activities and management of participatory development, but also our own personal/institutional involvement as development researchers and workers. I end with some thoughts on…

Within the group therapy literature scapegoating is understood as an unconscious process that plays an important function in preventing groups from being split asunder as a result of unexpressed frustration towards the leader. When a group successfully challenges its leader to share power, the need for a scapegoat passes. In the search for theory…

Asserts that organizations do not have wills of their own but are only groups of individuals acting in concert. Argues that trying to run an organization by consensus results in the loss of accountability and merely relocates conflict without eliminating it. Urges adopting leadership by consent in educational organizations. (PGD)

Examines implications for teamwork and school management, based on findings from a two-year study of senior management teams in British secondary schools. Discusses valuable lessons about teamwork's strains and gains, using a dual theoretical perspective encompassing both power and culture. Shows how the conflict between hierarchy and equal…

This four-part learning module was designed to assist educators in evaluating their leadership style and professional interactions with others. After defining leadership, Part I discusses task analysis and illustrates its use in educational settings. Then, the module lists the personality traits identified in research as important to successful…

Efforts to change the role of principals over the past 30 years typically reflect a leader-centrist perspective of schools illustrated by the metaphors of a marching band or the slightly less hierarchical classical orchestra. In these conceptual systems, policy (score) is generated (composed) by policymaking bodies (composers) with principals…

The faculty governance body in the College of Education at the University of Alabama is described. Analysis of archives resulted in the identification of four areas of authority in which faculty shared: participation in meetings, agendas, voting behavior, and issues considered by the body. Data revealed that generally half of all faculty,…

This paper presents a critical qualitative account and analysis of resistance and contestation over the decision-making process in a special education program. The parties involved were four parent advocates, who formed an advocacy organization, and the school administration in a rural school district in the Midwest. A subtle but powerful bias…