Centering Educational Administration: Cultivating Meaning, Community, Responsibility (Topics in Educational Leadership)

281 Pages·2003·1.87 MB·English

by  Robert J. Starratt

CENTERING EDUCATIONAL
ADMINISTRATION
Cultivating Meaning,
Community, Responsibility
Topics in Educational Leadership
Larry W. Hughes, Series Editor
Gaynor (cid:1) Analyzing Problems in Schools and School Systems:
A Theoretical Approach
Earle/Kruse (cid:1) Organizational Literacy for Educators
Shapiro/Stefkowitz (cid:1) Ethical Leadership and Decision Making in
Education: Applying Theoretical Perspectives to Complex Dilemmas
Bizar/Barr, Eds. (cid:1) School Leadership in Times of Urban Reform
Brouillette (cid:1) Charter Schools: Lessons in School Reform
Fishbaugh/Schroth/Berkeley, Eds. (cid:1) Ensuring Safe School
Environments: Exploring Issues—Seeking Solutions
Starratt (cid:1) Centering Educational Administration: Cultivating Meaning,
Community, Responsibility
CENTERING EDUCATIONAL
ADMINISTRATION
Cultivating Meaning,
Community, Responsibility
Robert J. Starratt
Boston College
LAWRENCE ERLBAUM ASSOCIATES, PUBLISHERS
2003 Mahwah, New Jersey London
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Centeringeducationaladministration:cultivatingmeaning,community,responsibility/
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Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN0-8058-4238-1(cloth:alk.paper)—ISBN0-8058-4239-X(pbk.:alk.paper)
1.Schoolmanagementandorganization—Studyandteaching(Higher). 2.School
administrators—Trainingof. I.Title.
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Contents
Preface vii
PART I: ELEMENTS OF THE LEADER’S VISION 1
1 The Challenging World of Educational Leadership 3
2 Cultivating Meaning 27
3 Contested Meaning: Schooling Within the Legacy
of Modernity 43
4 Educating for Community: Modernity’s Challenge 66
5 Cultivating a Mature Community 81
6 Cultivating Responsibility 100
7 Cultivating Responsibility To and For Learning 122
8 Cultivating a Responsible Community 137
v
vi CONTENTS
PART II: BRINGING THE VISION TO REALITY 157
9 Cultivating a Perspective on Learning 159
10 Empowerment 183
11 Organic Management for Student Learning 197
12 Leading by Design: The Medium Is the Message 214
13 Leading a Learning Community 224
14 School Administration as Autobiography 242
Author Index 255
Subject Index 261
Preface
Thisbookhasbeenwrittenoutofaconvictionthateducationaladministra-
torpreparationprogramsneedtobecomemoreresponsivetochangesand
challenges in the complex and dynamic social arena we call education.
Thesechangesandchallengesareembeddedinthelocalandregionalpo-
liticalcontextofschooling,innewapproachestoteachingasaprofession,
and in the federal and state public policy regarding standards of student
achievement.Oneofthefirstcoursesinagraduateprogramineducational
administrationisusuallyacourseonfundamentalsorfoundationsofedu-
cationaladministration.Thisbookisanattempttohelpbeginningadminis-
trators, or those seeking state certification to become administrators, get
startedontherightfootinaprogramthatwillbuildontheperspectivesde-
veloped in such a beginning course.
Afundamentalscourseshouldintroducethebeginningadministratorto
theessentialsofadministeringanindividualschoolorofbeingamember
of an administrative team in an individual school. Those who are moving
intodistrictofficeadministrationorstateeducationdepartmentscanlearn
more about their responsibilities in courses dealing with district- or state-
leveladministration,althoughIwouldhopethatthosecoursesalsopointto
the individual school as the place where their efforts will bear fruit (El-
more, 2000).
Evenwhenotherfundamentalstextsineducationaladministrationcon-
centrate on the individual school site, they tend to provide treatments of
discretefunctionsofadministration.Hence,wefindchaptersdealingwith
special education, extracurricular programs, testing and counseling pro-
grams, parent and community relations, scheduling, resource allocation,
vii
viii PREFACE
communication, decision making, delegating responsibilities, legal and
safetyconcerns,andsoon.Againwefindadiffusionoffocus—asampling
of functions that, although touching on real concerns for school adminis-
trators,revealthetreesbutprovidelittlesenseoftheforest.Thisbookasks
the large question: What is fundamental to educational administration?
What is its center?
Inresponse,wefocusattentiononthreethemesthatarefundamentalto
the work of educational administration: cultivating meaning, cultivating
community,andcultivatingresponsibility.Thesethemesnecessarilyinvolve
perspectives derived from philosophical and sociological scholarship. In
some administrative preparation programs, students are encouraged to
takephilosophyofeducationorsociologyofeducationcoursesasawayto
develop a broad understanding of the contexts and purposes of school-
ing—anunderstandingthatwillenablethemtobringtheseperspectivesto
bear on their work of leading schools. Valuable as these courses are, they
are rarely taught with the work of school administration in mind, but as
more general courses for all students of education. This book attempts to
bring philosophical and sociological perspectives to the very work of ad-
ministration,suggestingthattheyilluminatethechallengesthatconstitute
the substance of administrative work in education. With clarity about their
responsibilities in these three areas, administrators can provide a focus to
theirdecisionmaking,resourceallocation,communicationprocesses,and
parent–community relations.
SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION IN HISTORICAL
CONTEXT
Thereisanevenmorepressingneed,however,foranotherchangeinthe
fundamentals course. Past administration courses have tended to reflect
limited and fragmented conceptual frameworks that derive from earlier
historicalandtheoreticaldevelopmentsinthefieldsofeducationandedu-
cational administration. Murphy and Beck (1993) provided a historical
overview of the metaphorical themes that shaped understandings of
principalshipduringthepast70yearsintheUnitedStates.Theirstudyindi-
cateshowthewaysofunderstandingtheprincipalshipwereinfluencedby
historical events such as the Great Depression, World War II, and the suc-
cessoftheSovietspaceprogram.Thepoliticalandacademicworldsinflu-
enceddifferentperiodsofschooladministrationintheUnitedStateswith
variousconcerns,suchassocialhomogenizationofdisparatecommunities
of immigrants, scientific management, and accountability for measurable
student learning.
WhereasBeckandMurphypointedtothefluctuationsofthoughtabout
school administration, the critiques of Greenfield (1991), Foster (1986),
PREFACE ix
Bates (1984), Carr and Kemmis (1986), among others, challenge the
grounding of administrative theory and practice in rational decision mak-
ing and scientistic rationalism. This book stands firmly with their conten-
tions that much of what has been considered mainstream educational ad-
ministration literature makes unsupportable assumptions that (a) truly
professionaladministratorsmakerationaldecisionsbasedonfactsderived
from scientific research; (b) educational administrators work within (or
can create) rational organizational systems; and (c) they can control the
schoolasanorganization(and,indeed,havetheresponsibilityandrightto
do so) by applying scientifically grounded knowledge to make the school
workaccordingtorationallyderivedgoals.Wetakeupthatcriticisminthe
early chapters of the book.
EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION AND CRITICS
OF THE SCHOOLS
Forthepastquartercentury,schoolshavecomeunderrelentlesscriticism
fromboththerightandtheleft.Thecriticismfromtheright,fueledbyare-
sentment toward “The 1960s,” when schools and universities were per-
ceivedbycriticsasfounderinginadirectionlessseaofpermissiveness,has
focused on the supposed abandonment of “the three Rs”—the pandering
to fads such as nurturing self-esteem (disconnected, they assumed, from
the achievement of rigorous standards), multiculturalism (which was
equated with disparagement of patriotism as well as the Eurocentric can-
nonsofliteratureandhistory),andcreativity(equatedwithastandardless
aestheticandanti-intellectualbias).Thecriticismfromtheleftfocusedon
theschoolasaninstrumentofthesociopoliticalreproductionofinequality
throughitssystemsofcurriculumtracking;thedeadendofspecialeduca-
tion programming; the ambivalence of bilingual programs toward foreign
cultures;thepredominanceofmaleperspectivesinpedagogy,learningthe-
ory,andcurriculumprogramming;andtheperpetuationofacademicfail-
urethroughbureaucraticlabelingofat-riskstudentpopulationsandthese-
riouslackofearlyresourcingofremedialprogramsintheearlygrades.In
other words, the left argued, schools have not responded to the “war on
poverty” and the racial desegregation of public life, nor to the emerging
promise of feminists perspectives in schools. Instead, schools have contin-
uedtopourthenewwineofprogressivepublicpolicyintotheoldwineskins
of institutional status-quo arrangements.
Fromeitherperspective,theprimaryvillainswerethemindless,ineffec-
tive educators who appeared rudderless—without a policy compass or the
leadershiptoarticulateacleardirectionfortheschool.Indeed,thecritics
were right in this regard: The educational community seemed to lack the