Organizational behavior textbooks do not explain how to develop political competency. Students could benefit from learning how organizational politics affects decision making and how their own political behavior can reflect both organizational goals and individual interests and preferences. This article presents guidelines for helping students…

Script analysis was used to identify common scenarios for administrators and teachers, demonstrating that women's undervaluation in educational administration derives partially from the dominance of the type of masculinity that is competitive, overconfident, and status conscious. Gender culture of school administration reflects the struggle for…

Fear frequently underlies confusion about shared decision making. Participative decision makers do agree on three basics: focus on improving school effectiveness by involving teachers and parents; need for school teams or councils charged with decision-making authority over certain issues; and a process to improve overall decision-making quality…

Discusses different ways authority is defined and understood both in the classroom and in the various programs designed to improve student writing. Argues that bringing tutors into the classroom forces teachers to reanalyze their thinking about authority through their interactions with students. (SR)

Examines philosophies, methods, and objectives shared by experiential education and feminist pedagogy. Focuses on the explicit analysis of power in the teacher-student relationship, the value of personal experience as a valid form of knowledge, and the goal of social justice. Recommends eight strategies to infuse a more feminist way of teaching…

Uses Max Weber's ideas of domination to analyze the authority structure in an English private boy's school where physical and sexual abuse were perpetrated by the school's principal and owner. Discusses how domination was constructed and maintained, how victims were selected, and how relations outside the school were managed. Suggests current…

There should not be a split between literacy of function (ability to deal with institutional procedures) and literacy of voice (expression of knowledge and experience). Acquiring functional literacy often involves voicing experience as well as questioning institutional power. Teachers and students should collaborate in bridging the gap. (SK)

Two trends in postmodernist thought are discernible: one redefines modernist principles such as democracy, reason, and equality; the other deconstructs and rejects these principles. However, the redefinition of modernist principles offers educators the most hopeful and useful conception of dialogue across differences. (SK)

The key question identified is not whether literacy theories, practices, and research recognize variable and contextual aspects of literacy, but whether they consider how this diversity positions learners, teachers, and researchers with respect to existing inequities and relations of domination and subordination. (55 references) (LB)

Reviews the August 1991 special issue of "Educational Administration Quarterly" on "Nontraditional Theory and Research." Feminist poststructural theories had been used to guide the analysis of educational change in the fictional Johnsonville School District. This article finds that only three of the eight articles moved beyond…

A controversial April 1991 proclamation made Spanish the sole official language of Puerto Rico, replacing a 1902 law declaring English and Spanish as the languages of government. This paper discusses the emotional debate and suggests that the law resulted from a powerful group opposed to U.S. statehood. (27 references) (Author/LB)

In extremely repressive situations, Freire's liberation pedagogy can support resistance; in postrevolutionary societies, it can suffer from contradictions. The perpetual tension between domestication (indoctrination) and liberation makes transformative education an ongoing process. (SK)

The location of the institutional research unit within the organizational structure influences the role it plays in supporting effective decision making. A theoretical framework of organizational structure based on division of labor can be applied to higher education institutions, with implications for staffing and expectations for performance.…

A document on higher education, a decade in preparation, recognizes certain rights of Roman Catholic institutions to academic freedom and independence, a more moderate stance than anticipated. It outlines norms that may be tailored to existing statutes and operating principles in some instances. For American institutions, rules may be…

Academic achievement of historically oppressed groups is affected by the societal power relations reproduced in schools and by the "deficit" perspective. Culturally responsive education and strategic teaching are humanistic approaches that respect and use the culture, history, and perspectives of the students in educational practice. (SK)