Adversarial collective bargaining often leads to lingering resentments. Collaborative bargaining, conversely, is a problem-solving approach to contract negotiations based on common interests and mutual respect. Recognizing the interrelationship between trust at schools and trust at the bargaining table, a growing number of school districts are…

Formal worker participation schemes, such as the quality circles and related employee involvement schemes that have been introduced in 75 percent of Fortune 500 companies, are likely to have a lasting impact on the way many organizations work. In a majority of empirical studies, direct participation is associated with at least a short-run…

This study of available evidence on cooperative union-management efforts to solve employment problems indicates that roughly one-half of the larger unionized manufacturing facilities have embarked on cooperative efforts. Thus, larger firms have already made the decision to cooperate or not, and targeting government money to them to encourage…

Although parents and citizens in each community should be encouraged to participate in the educational policy-making process, it has been shown that public access to school board meetings is thwarted in many subtle ways. To gain information that would help to balance the interests of privacy and public access in every school district, the State…

School administrative decisions must be based on a broad range of input; the power of group thinking is required to ensure that the best decisions are made. The necessary transition from the old, closed autocratic administrative decisionmaking system to a new, open democratic organization requires not a radical leap, but a gradual transition. The…

Collaborative learning, such as student-team learning or work-group learning, has become the focus of inservice workshops for teachers, a theme in professional journals, and the daily routine in an increasing number of classrooms. The women's study clubs in late 19th-century United States used a similar pedagogy. By the early 1900s, perhaps as…

In one year, with no prior experience, the Chair of the Art Department at a large community college raised over $100,000 to help the department expand its programs and to build relationships within the school and community. The motivation behind the $100,000 fund-raising goal came from the chairperson's desire to develop her leadership skills. The…

In November 1985, a study was conducted within 10 State University of New York community colleges to determine whether faculty and department heads in a profession-based department (i.e., Business) and a discipline-based department (i.e., English) had the same perceptions of organizational effectiveness characteristics and organizational culture…

A frequently cited explanation for women's underrepresentation in educational administration is the incongruence between traditional administrative role stereotypes and gender stereotypes. However, this paper posits that certain educational and demographic trends may influence school administrator roles to become less stereotypically masculine.…

Methods classes in teacher education are under attack. If teacher education programs are to survive with a methods component, teacher educators need to begin living and demonstrating the models of pedagogy they advocate. Methods courses must go beyond the lecture mode to democratic practice in which students and instructors build social learning…

Educators have recently stressed the importance of teacher/researchers investigating life in the classroom. Collaborative studies conducted between a student teacher and a cooperating teacher can provide a productive relationship from which both can learn a great deal about teaching, learning, and research. The collaborative study discussed in…

Issues related to decentralization, with a focus on community involvement, are discussed in this paper. The 20th-century Indonesian experience is analyzed to illustrate the process by which a national administrative reform policy develops, and to identify contributing and inhibiting factors relating to the implementation of decentralization. The…

The Collaborative School Improvement Process (C-SIP) is a six-step process based on participative decision making and staff development. The identification of participants' perceptions of the program and reasons for variation is the purpose of this study. Data collection is based on a survey of teachers and administrators in 29 participating…

At Orchards Elementary School (Idaho), curriculum inquiry is focusing on the nature of a democratic school. As democracy is more of a process than a specific content, the Orchards faculty have concentrated more on changes in methods of delivering curriculum than on changing specific items of curriculum. Questions of worth and value have all…

This manual is aimed at therapists working in education settings who may have limited experience in real-life consultation situations. The first chapter discusses educational consultation as a process, including contracting, planning, and evaluation/termination. The second chapter presents strategies for collaborative decision making. Chapter 3…