This paper reports on a study to determine what management styles are being used at Czech schools and the possible reasons for these styles. The study also looked at participatory management in Czech schools and the possible hindrances to its wider adoption and development. Five basic questions were formulated: What management style is typically…

This study explores the ability of shared governance systems to make institutional hard decisions, focusing particularly on discontinuance of academic programs. A case study method examined shared governance processes at four research institutions to identify themes and patterns across the institutional decision-making process. Between 11 and 16…

The positive impact from changing the environment of a school as a way of improving the quality of education is often overlooked by educators. This book shows how to create more effective schools through a design process that involves teachers, students, parents, administrators, and architects. The design process creates school environments that…

These guidelines are predicated on the belief that culturally appropriate service to indigenous peoples is a fundamental principle of Alaska public libraries. While the impetus for developing the guidelines was service to the Alaska Native community, they can also be applied to other cultural groups. A culturally responsive library environment is…

Education decentralization efforts are examined in six primarily rural, sub-Saharan African countries--Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. Stated reasons do not always reflect the real underlying rationales for decentralization. Education decentralization that is publicly advocated to improve service delivery and local…

This book provides practitioners working with young adults with disabilities practical strategies for building expanded partnerships with parents during the transition years. It relies on three beliefs: parents need to be fully informed partners; practitioners need to empower parents to become partners; and parents can become accountable for…

This issue of the Australian Early Childhood Association Research in Practice Series provides staff management strategies for directors and others involved with the management of early childhood settings and suggests ways to effectively delegate authority and tasks in order to reduce administrative pressures and workload. The booklet presents…

This paper discusses recent Illinois legislation related to education reform and some collaborative approaches being used to impact public policy. It shares implementation updates regarding the rules and regulations attached to the legislation and how these changes could impact educational excellence, equity, and accountability in the 21st…

This report is based upon a review of current Idaho policies, laws, regulations, and practices that have affected the lives of people with developmental disabilities, interviews with a sample of administrators and staff members representing government, voluntary agencies, self-advocacy groups, and provider agencies, and insights gained from…

This report details findings from visits to 15 small schools associated with Human Scale Education. These schools are all different, reflecting the priorities of their founders. But there are features common to all of them--parental involvement, democratic processes, environmentally sustainable values, spiritual values, links with the local…

This study investigated the perceptions of selected stakeholders about the impact of returning to a district-wide neighborhood school structure after having been under a federal desegregation mandate (involving busing) since the 1970s. It focuses on data from interviews with African American and white elementary school teachers. The interviews…

Using the metaphor of a river to describe continuous and lifelong learning, this paper details an action research project aimed at developing effective learning environments in a large, distributed organization called Thiess Contractors Proprietary Limited, an Australian mining and construction company. Two major outcomes of the project are…

For more than a decade, many researchers and practitioners have endorsed a "positive youth development" approach, which views adolescents as active contributors to their own development and as assets to their communities. As part of this shift, youth are increasingly being invited to engage in community governance. In youth…

Reviews teaching for and about democracy in Australia, and identifies key concepts embedded in the notion of democracy (representation, leadership, decision making, public criticism). Draws on ethnographic data from settled and remote Aboriginal Australia to explore whether understandings and practices associated with these concepts are shared by…

The introduction of citizenship education as a key cross-curricular focus in Scottish national education guidelines is discussed in relation to New Labor's "Third Way" politics. Data from ongoing qualitative research in 10 Scottish schools provide evidence of pupil and staff participation in school decision-making processes as well as…