Stability and change : innovation in an educational context
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Bibliographic Information
Stability and change : innovation in an educational context
（Environment, development, and public policy, . Public policy and social services）
Plenum Press, c1981
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Note
Bibliography: p. 279-287
Includes indexes
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Nearly a century ago, Emile Durkheim founded the sociology of educa- tion on the French cultural and structural premise that the function of educators is to transmit culture from one generation to the next. The clarity of his vision was aided by the era, the place, and the actors in the learning environment. His was an era when the relatively seamless web of western culture, although ripping and straining, was still intact. The place, post-Napoleonic France, was vertically stratified and elaborately structured. And the teachers had reason to think they were agents of authority, whereas most students, during school hours at least, behaved as if they were the objects of that authority. Underlying the very notion of a sociology of education, then, was a visible and pervasive aura of a system and order that was culturally prescribed. Scholars of American education have yearned for such systems before and since Durkheim. Every European and English model has been emulated in a more or less winsome manner, from the Boston Latin School of the 1700s to the Open Education programs of the 1960s. In the last quarter century of research, it has begun to dawn on us, however, that no matter how hard American educators try, they do not build a system.
Table of Contents
1 Introduction.- Why Study Change in Rural Schools?.- The Federal Role in Education.- Basic Premises of the Rural Experimental Schools Program.- The Research Context.- Limitations of the Literature on Educational Change.- The Rural ES Program in the Research Context.- Research Themes and Issues.- Outcomes of the Change Process.- System Linkage.- Overview of this Volume.- 2 The Research Context.- Elements of the Rational Approach to Change: The Stages of Change.- Readiness.- Initiation.- Implementation.- Continuation.- Elements of the Natural-Systems Approach to the Study of Change: The Systems Framework.- Alternative Theories of Organizational Innovation within the Systems Framework.- System Linkage and the Systems Framework.- Definitions of System Linkage.- The Implications of System Linkage for Our Research.- 3 Methodology And Research Procedures.- The Context of the Study.- The Program Design Context.- The Research Project Context.- General Approach to Data Collection.- Structured Data from System Members.- Structured Data from System Observers: On-Site Researcher Questionnaires.- Unstructured Data from System Members: Telephone Interviews.- Unstructured Data from System Observers: The Case Studies.- Strategies for Measurement and Analysis.- 4 On The Brink Of Change: The Federal Level And The Local Level.- Assumptions Underlying the Experimental Schools Program.- Assumptions Concerning the Process of Change.- Assumptions about the Program Design.- Assumptions about the Local School Districts.- The Ten Rural School Districts and Their Readiness for Change.- The Entry of Ten School Districts.- The Ten Selected School Districts.- The Assessment of Readiness.- A Summary of Readiness.- 5 The Beginning Of Change: The Planning Year.- Federal Expectations for the Planning Period.- The Products of the Planning Process: An Overview of the ES Program.- Typical Project Components.- Content of the Ten ES Projects.- The Assessment of Effective Initiation.- A Summary of Initiation Factors.- Whose Plan?.- 6 The Implementation Of Planned Change In Schools.- Measures of Implementation at the School Level.- Quantity.- Quality.- Total Scope Score.- A Descriptive Analysis of the Scope of Implementation in Schools.- Variations in Implementation within Districts.- Social System Characteristics: The Variables and Their Measures.- Structure Variables.- Culture Variables.- Input (Staff Characteristics) Variables.- The Effect of System Characteristics on Implementation.- The Effect of Structure.- The Effect of Culture.- The Effect of Input.- Predicting Implementation: A Summary of Most Important Variables.- Summarizing the Results of the Initial Regressions.- 7 Further Exploration Of Implementation In Schools.- Comparing the Contributions of Structure, Culture, and Input Variables to School Change.- Explaining Joint Contributions of Structure, Culture, and Input.- Interaction Effects between Variable Pairs.- Discussion of Interaction Terms.- How Does the Structuring of Authority Affect Implementation?.- Analysis and Results.- How Does System Linkage Affect School Implementation?.- Structural and Cultural Linkage as Predictors of Implementation.- Physical Linkage: The Rural Factor.- Conclusions.- Alternative Theories of Change.- Participation, Authority, and Implementation of Organizational Change.- Linkage and Implementation.- 8 Comprehensive Change At The District Level.- Measuring Implementation at the District Level.- How Comprehensive Was Implementation?.- Factors Related to Implementation.- Programmatic Features Associated with Implementation.- Contextual Factors Associated with Implementation.- Conclusions.- 9 The Continuation Of Change.- Our Approach to Investigating Continuation.- Measuring Continuation: The Districts' Scores.- Some Observations on Patterns of Continuation.- Factors Affecting the Outcomes of Change.- Process of Change.- Environmental and Organizational Factors.- Perspectives on Factors Explaining Continuation: A Cautionary Tale.- 10 Conclusions And Implications.- Contributions to a Theory of Change in Organizational Settings.- Change as a Rational, Manageable Process.- The Effects of Natural Systems Characteristics on Change.- Implications for the Design and Management of Educational Change Programs.- Implications for the Design and Management of Change at the Local Level.- Implications for the Design and Management of Change at the Federal Level.- References.- Appendix A Site-By-Site Descriptions Of The Ten Es Projects As Implemented And Continued.- Appendix B Instruments.- Appendix C Correlation Matrix Of Independent Variables.- Author Index.
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