Makes the case for democratic education, criticizing critical pedagogy for its absence of a coherent, testable theory, lack of understanding of democracy, and inapplicability to the reality of classroom experiences. The paper presents six attributes of democracy that are generally recognized and applies them to education, adding a seventh that…

Provides a narrative account of the development of a solutions-focused approach to school improvement. Describes the process whereby an urban primary school harnessed the collective energies of all staff (teachers and support staff) to bring about improvement, and considers the role of democratic leadership in reconceptualizing the school as a…

Examines Education Action Zone (EAZ) policy as a basis for the development of an analytic framework for investigating contemporary forms of leadership and management within schools in urban and challenging contexts. Discussion explores three paired themes: "Networking and experimentation,""partnership and stakeholder…

Today's reforms call for teachers to become involved in decision making outside the classroom. Teachers need the necessary skills to become active participants. This paper examines: areas where teachers can be involved in decision making; necessary knowledge and skills; ways to include this preparation within preservice teacher education; and the…

Experiential education is not just experiential learning, but also a philosophy of education that involves the interaction between learner and teacher and recognizes the larger system-level issues within education. Viewing experiential education as a philosophy allows for its various expressions to argue collectively for educational reform that…

Interviews with 50 principals from elementary, middle, and high schools in rural Georgia examined the extent of collaborative decision making with teachers. Principals recognized teachers as best able to determine student needs. Teachers had high involvement in selection of instructional materials and development of the school's mission but…

Examines the emergence, in one school, of informal power coalescing to address issues of gender and racial equity and social justice and the move to co-opt the discourse of change through formally appointed school committees, focusing on: power relations and school structures; dangerous conversations; being set up to fail; and authentic…

Rather than turning away from faculty governance, colleges and universities need to renew commitment to faculty who can teach, keep up research, and attend to running their institutions. As attrition diminishes the power of senior faculty, the new managerial class generates authority structures that make faculty governance irrelevant. Young…

Peace education is a key for establishing a consensual peace and maintaining it over time. There are 5 essential elements in building a lasting peace through education. First, a public education system must be established that has compulsory attendance for all children and youth, integrated so students from previously conflicting groups interact…

This article explores how planning the Botswana National Literacy Programme aided the state in maintaining its power and control over the past two decades. Using critical educational theory as the theoretical framework, it demonstrates how the planning of literacy education promotes conventional views of literacy and perpetuates state hegemony. It…

Using national survey data, the author finds little relationship between decision-making authority and the actual decisions that are made.

In applying linguistics to the task of analysing how agentivity is construed through verbal interaction, scholars often equate social agency with grammatical agency, and in particular with the grammar of transitivity. The difficulty I want to address in this paper is that we may miss other important, systematic and contrastive patterning in the…

Formal teacher leadership roles--such as coach and coordinator--have become a standard component of education reform efforts intended to support teachers' instructional improvement efforts. Yet the culture of schools is widely understood to favor autonomy and egalitarianism, suggesting that classroom teachers may be resistant to peer leadership.…

This paper discusses the benefits and drawbacks of shared governance models and the ramifications of shared governance on the environment and morale of faculty, staff, and students. Effective leadership teams can be developed in all settings. With clarity of purpose and mission, communication, and sincere motivations to transition, all sites have…

Servant leadership represents a significant departure from hierarchical systems of leadership often employed in educational and social service programs. The premise of servant leadership is deeply rooted in the leader's priority of serving others, to ensure that other people's highest priority needs are being served before one's self. The servant…