Based on structural and behavioral orientations, a theory of intergroup antagonism (subsuming ethnic prejudice, racism, and sexism) is developed interlinking social power, competition, labor force structure and contact. Given the learning of prejudicial attitudes and discriminatory behavioral patterns, differences in power, competition, and the…

The rhetoric and results of efforts to empower and professionalize teachers are examined to gain insight into ways in which the language of educational reform functions in both maintaining and changing power relations. This critical analysis clarifies how the ways people communicate both influence and are influenced by the structures and forces of…

The study of leadership has faltered partly because the wrong phenomenon has been studied. Whereas the usual definition considers leadership either as a personal property or as a property of position, this paper argues that it is a transient phenomenon residing neither in the person nor the situation and one that can be practiced equally well by…

One approach to the implementation of community education is to solicit involvement and support for the idea from the informal power structure. The first step is to identify the informal power structure; one method is the reputational technique, in which selected members of a variety of organizations each nominate at least five people who have…

Followers attribute authority to charismatic leaders through their faith and belief in them and in their mission. Charismatic authority in organizations involves an interaction of leader, followers, and moral order; in the eyes of the followers, the leader personifies that order. Authority must come from below because the ultimate decision to…

This paper examines the role of comparative education from the perspective of the dependent society, with particular attention to Latin America and the Caribbean. The paper starts by comparing the theories of dependence developed in both dominant and dependent societies. The Marxist theory and the liberal, "developmental" theories that…

Changing student demographics, legislation improving standards and access, and increasing community expectations are creating instability in the nation's education system. Also, public confidence in schools' effectiveness has eroded. This treatise draws on sociology, corporate studies, and effective schools research to understand how education…

The literature on socialization of nursing students for professional commitment is reviewed, along with the literature on nursing as a female profession. Concerns addressed by the literature include the following: students' self-images over the course of their nursing education, nursing leadership, the conventional orientation of many young…

A case study tested the premise that people cope with ambiguity in particular ways within an organizational context, negotiating for understanding and choice through the manipulation of power, ideology, and technology. The study focused on the implementation of a satellite communications network in local Catholic Church offices and on staff…

The way that affirmative action fits into the faculty appointment process at Stanford University and the University of California at Berkeley was studied, based on 50 faculty interviews and supporting documentation. Traditions of governance at the universities determined the responses to faculty affirmative action. At Stanford University,…

This paper explores notions of empowerment, as variously constructed in contemporary educational discourse, in an attempt to better understand what it means to adopt empowering rhetoric. The discussion is framed around three questions: (1) What is empowerment in contemporary educational discourse? (2) What is desirable, and what should teachers be…

Chapter 7 of a revised volume on school leadership, this chapter advocates the use of participative decision-making (PDM) at the school site level, outlines implementation guidelines, and describes the experiences of some schools with PDM systems. A cornerstone of a reform movement to make organizational operations more democratic and less…

Plato's "Republic" and George Orwell's "1984" both posit visionary worlds, one where humans are virtuous and understand what Plato refers to as "the Good," and the other where citizens are pawns of a government which uses language as a form of tyranny and control. Despite these overarching differences in philosophical…

Rural communities have traditionally been overshadowed by urban centers, thus losing the political clout necessary for adequate rural social service program development/delivery. Social service delivery in rural areas is complicated by lack of power and organization and represents a complex interplay among values, beliefs, social organization,…

It has often been suggested that knowledge of the underlying power sturcture is essential to understanding the day-to-day functioning of the nuclear family and that such knowledge may be of special relevance for understanding violence between husbands and wives. To explore the relationship of the family power structure (e.g., wife-dominant,…