This article offers four explanations of why outcome-based education (OBE) has proven to be so controversial. First, OBE requires consideration of the central purposes of compulsory public education, on which there is sharp philosophical disagreement, and the outcome-defining process involves input from many groups with many different…

This paper examines theories on discipline in education, discussing the effect of teachers' behaviors on their students. The issue can be addressed from psychological, critical, and feminist theoretical perspectives. Currently, the psychological method of handling student behavior dominates schools, with behavior modification programs in place to…

This paper investigates how various technologies have constructed the reasoning of teaching and schooling in contemporary Japan. The paper contends that (1) the construction of the teacher and the student in Japan involves a complexity of power relations; (2) schooling is not simply controlled by the government through its sovereign power, but is…

This paper explores the importance of peer relations for the experiences and texts of children in a third-grade writing workshop. Peers, as an audience for children's writing, bring with them friendship, trust, and a "social energy" that empowers authors and their writing in the classroom. Simultaneously, peers also bring with them…

Findings from a case-method study that explored educational administration students' perceptions of two administrative theories--micropolitical analysis and traditional social systems approach--are presented in this paper. Methodology involved presentation of a case to educational administration students who participated in group discussion and…

The purpose of this text is to guide high school students to a greater understanding of the subject of authority and a greater ability to deal with issues of authority effectively as they go about their daily lives as citizens in U.S. society. This curriculum guide contains 12 lessons that are organized into four units. Unit 1, What is authority?,…

This teacher's curriculum guide is designed to help high school students to gain a greater understanding of the subject of authority and a greater ability to deal with issues of authority effectively as they go about their daily life as citizens in U.S. society. For each of the 12 lessons, the guide provides an overview, objectives, materials…

The Coffee County (Georgia) Board of Education voted to consolidate Nicholls and Broxton High Schools with Coffee High School. This case study analyzes the issues of school consolidation, benefits to students and financial implications through sociological and political science perspectives. Data were collected by personal interview, document…

This paper presents a critical analysis of events that surrounded the efforts of four mothers to gain access to the educational decision-making process. A basic premise is that a hegemonic relationship based upon gender pervades American education. The roles of administrator and parent are "gendered" concepts that affect the ways that…

After discussing school climate and the differences between school climate and school culture, this document lists numerous components and determinants of school climate as identified in related literature. A description of school culture from "Caught in the Middle," a report developed by the Middle Grades Program Quality Review Task Force and the…

This essay reviews major trends in methodological and theoretical approaches to the study of organizations since the mid-sixties and espouses the political analysis of organizations, a position representing a middle ground between comparative structuralism and the loosely coupled systems approach. This position emphasizes micropolitics as well as…

The relevance of Richard E. Neustadt's presidential choice making theory to a university presidency is analyzed. This theory, which was introduced in Neustadt's 1960 publication "Presidential Power," is examined in regard to situations that occurred at Kent State University (KSU): the KSU Black United Student (BUS) confrontation with the…

Merry Perry teaches English courses (both writing and literature) where the majority of the students are white, middle class, and conservative. Perry begins the article by saying that in such an academic environment, her most challenging task is not teaching grammar, punctuation, or editing skills, but challenging these students to think about and…

Drawing from the theoretical background of Schon's concept of the "reflective practitioner," this study compares the ways in which superintendents and school board members view the future and examines their differing perceptions in order to identify possible loci of conflict between them. Board members and superintendents were asked to identify…

This paper examines the relationship between demands for site-based management and restructuring as they bear on recent theory and research on power in organizations. It also defines and describes the new face of power in the schools--facilitative power, power exercised through, rather than over, subordinates. The bulk of the paper consists of an…