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Educational Process: School Perspectives

This area studies the school as an organization — its structure, leadership, culture, and management.

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Scope

It covers school organization and governance, educational leadership and administration, school culture and climate, and school effectiveness and reform.

Sub-topics

Core questions

  • How are schools organized as institutions?
  • How does educational leadership work?
  • What makes schools effective?
  • How does school culture shape outcomes?

Key concepts

  • School organization
  • Educational leadership
  • School culture
  • Bureaucracy
  • School effectiveness
  • Governance

Key theories

The school as organization
Bidwell analysed the school as a distinctive formal organization, and Weber's bureaucracy framed its structure.
The sociology of teaching
Waller pioneered the study of schools as social worlds with their own culture and conflicts.

History

The organizational study of schools drew on Weberian bureaucracy and Waller's sociology of teaching, developing school-effectiveness, leadership, and reform research.

Debates

Bureaucracy versus professional autonomy
How to balance administrative control with teachers' professional discretion.

Key figures

  • Willard Waller
  • Max Weber
  • Charles Bidwell

Related topics

Seminal works

  • waller-1932
  • weber-1922-school
  • bidwell-1965

Frequently asked questions

What does this area study?
The school as an organization — its structure, leadership, culture, and management — i.e., educational administration and school organization.

Methods for this concept

Related concepts