Organizational and Governance in American Education

EDU 548 - Spring 2013 Semester

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Chapter Five Presentation: “The Development of Thought in Educational

Administration”

Presented by: Anyha Lord-Jerris

Professor: Dr. Lauren Larsen

In this chapter we will examine the development of the intellectual heritage of

modern administration, and identifying the major models and paradigms that

undergird the profession and the shifts that help explain changes in

professional practice.

Overview

Educational Evangelist versus Professional Managers

Contrasting of two models: the educational evangelists of the common school era and the professional

managers of the progressive era

Educational Evangelist

• From 1820 – 1880 the common school in America was established

• Purpose: nation building (socializing, the young to reflect American values)

• Gathered together individuals in support of public education (politicians, school people, and the everyday people)

• Constructed an educational system• Government played a limited role in education

Professional Managers

• From 1890 – 1950s the emphasis changed to “administrative progressives”

• Purpose: to reshape school through the use of business efficiency and scientific expertise

• Separating education from politics• Did not want public involvement in education• Wanted the state to take an active role in

transforming education

Leaders of the Movement to Professionalize Educational

AdministrationEllwood P. Cubberly:

• A Physical Scientist by training and no background in elementary and secondary education

•Appointed superintendent of schools in San Diego in 1896

•Believed schools should be run by experts and the school boards should not be political

•Advocated scientific management and bureaucratic conceptions of hierarchy

Leaders of the Movement to Professionalize Educational Administration

•Professor of education •Developed the basic standards for educational administration in use today•Prominent in the school survey movement – standardized template of how schools should be efficiently staffed, organized, and operated• Conducted more than 80 surveys to assess administrative efficiency of schools especially on cost management

George Strayer

Other Leaders of the Movement

Edward C. ElliottFranklin Bobbitt

“Cubberly, Strayer and other administrative progressives were, in many respects, a small part of a larger movement that sought to professionalize business management, bureaucratize the country’s institutions, and transform the United States into a corporate state”.

Major Strands of Thought in Administration

Intellectual development will be grouped into four major strands. The models are concerned with efficiency, the person, politics, and culture.

Most experienced administrators assume a moderate and tolerant posture by looking for the good in all view

The models should not be used exclusively since none of the views is comprehensive

While the models are being compared pay attention to the costs and benefits of using each model

Concern for Efficiency• Scientific Management and the Efficiency Model• Founded by Frederick Winslow Taylor

• Principal #1 – Replace intuitive methods of doing the work of the organization with scientific method based observation and analysis to obtain the best cost-benefit ratio.

• Principal #2 – Select the best person for the job scientifically and train this person.• Principal # 3 – Cooperate with workers to ensure that work is being completed accordingly

to standards and procedures• Principal #4 – Divide the work of managers and workers

• French theorist Henri Fayol offered a universal list of good management principals that became very popular and are still used today:1. Division of work2. Authority3. Discipline4. Unity of command5. Unity of direction

(Refer to pages 107 and 108 of text for descriptions and additional principals)

Modern Scientific Management Concern for Efficiency

Due to a lot of advancements in management techniques such as operation research, systems analysis, and computer research we now see modern scientific management which now offers the following efficiency ideas:

1. Performance contracting2. Behavioral objectives3. State and national assessment4. Cost-benefit analysis5. Management by objectives6. Strategic planning 7. Management information systems

Concern for EfficiencyBureaucratic Theories and the Efficiency Model – Assumed that all aspects of the organization – from its objectives, technical requirements, and work flow, to the details of its organizational structure – could be defined and organized into a permanent grand and highly rational design. All that remained was to find people who could be programmed into design.

Works just like a machine with the non-mechanical modes of production: precision, speed, unambiguity, continuity, discretion, and unity.

Why is bureaucracy still part of the image of most educational organizations?

1. Assures order2. Rationality3. Accountability4. Stability

Strengths vs the weaknesses of the mechanistic approach – refer to page 111 of the text

Concern for the Person

The Person Model – person views are divided into two phases human relations and human resources.

Maintenance and nurturance of the human organization are important concerns of administrators who operate within the person model. Building blocks to organizational health are individuals and their needs and groups of individuals.

Scientific management and bureaucracy emphasize task specialization while the human resources model emphasizes person specialization.

Critics of the scientific model were Young (first woman superintendent of a big city school district and Mary Parker) Mary Parker

Concern for the Person – Human Relations Research team headed by Elton Milton and Fritz Roethlisberger operated a Western Electric

Company in Illinois from 1922 – 1932 where they examined the relationship between physical factors and increase in the performance of workers. They found that changes in worker motivation and satisfaction were most credited with increased production. After the experiment, workers were able to socialize easily with co-workers and participated in some way in determining their working conditions. As a result of the new conditions the following occurred: higher motivation and commitment levels, greater effort at work and higher production records from the people from the experiment. The human relations model assumed that once a worker was happy and comfortable, he or she will show little interest in policy decisions affecting his or her work.

Concern for the Person – Human Resources The maturity of human relations as human resources suggest the emphasis from social needs of individuals at work to needs expressed as a desire for more intrinsic satisfaction from increased organizational responsibility and from the achievement of organizational goals.

Theories X and Y by Douglas McGregor (1960) is a good representation of human resources thinking.

Theory X- Managers associated with efficiency views of administrationTheory Y – Managers had a higher regard for the value of the potential person

“Human resources theories reflected not only an interest in people at work but also a new regard for their potential”.

Refer to page 114 and 115 to review Theory X and Y

Human Resources Overview of Theory X & Y

Concern for Politics

Political thinking is relatively new to educational administration. There are four critical emphases that distinguish political views from those that emphasize efficiency or the person as follows:

The political view is concerned with the dynamic interplay of the organization with forces in its external environment.

Emphasis is on policy development instead of administration of policy decisions Conflict is considered as both natural and necessary in political views and this view does

not seek to suppress or resolve conflict Decisions on goals and commitments are not given but negotiated through bargaining

within the organization and its environment.

Concern for PoliticsRational and Non-rational

PerspectivesHerbert Simon, Richard M. Cyert, and James G. March Model

Concern for Politics

In the 1970s, March and his colleagues focused their attention to the analysis of educational organizations which was characterized as “organized anarchies” with three distinct, important, and troublesome features:

1. Their goals are problematic: goals are not consistent, seem to shift over time, and vary from one part of the school to another, and goals are discovered instead of being formulated and then acted upon.

2. Technologies are unclear: not sure about how the process works, little capability for design change in the system, it is not known what will happen if we make changes.

3. Participation in the organization is fluid: participants come and go (students, teachers, and administrators)

“According to March, organizations should be viewed as political coalitions and administrators as political brokers. In terms of a political coalition: the form, shape and structure of a school as well as its goals and missions are negotiated. Coalition members include: teachers, chairpersons, students, janitors, etc”.

Concern for PoliticsPlanning and Decision Making as

ExamplesCohen, March, and Olsen (1972) Garbage Can Metaphor

• Different school problems are deposited in this can• Typically solutions are only loosely connected to the problem

• Solutions exist that can match the problem

Concern for Culture

Louis (1980) characterizes a group’s culture as follows: A set of understandings or meanings shared by a group of people. The meanings are largely tacit among members, are clearly relevant to the particular group, and are distinctive to the group. Meanings are passed on to a new group members”

1. Leadership within the Cultural Perspective (articulating school purposes and mission, socializing new members, telling stories, maintaining or reinforcing myths, traditions, and beliefs)

2. Building School Culture (answering questions such as what is this school about? What is important here? What do we believe in?)

3. Professional Learning Communities (action-oriented teams of teachers who work together to create and sustain a shared practice, which involves committing to common purposes and goals, developing lessons, units, and teaching strategies and developing and using assessments).

Educational Administration as An Applied Science

Schools are human organizations their products are human and their processing require socializing of humans. Schools are labor intensive.

“Educational administration relies greatly on concepts, insights, and practices from the various disciplines and from the study of organization and administration in general but evaluates these ideas for goodness of fit to the unique value structure of educational organizations”.

A Reflective Practice Perspective The use of informed intuition used by administrators Seeks to establish augmented professional intelligence Practical knowledge is created

Educational Administration as a Moral Craft School administrator role is to transform the school from an organization to an institution The job of the school is to transform students not only with knowledge and skills but by

building character and virtue Concern for virtue or efficiency as a standard School administrators serve as the “coordinating mechanism” The context of administration is surprisingly loose, chaotic, and ambiguous

Chapter 5 Summary Educational Evangelist versus Professional Managers Leaders of the Movement to Professionalize Educational Administration (

Most influential Ellwood Cubberly and George Strayer) Major Strands of Thought in Administration (efficiency, person, political

and cultural models) Concern for Efficiency - Scientific Management and the Efficiency

Model, Modern Scientific Management, Bureaucratic Theories and the Efficiency Model

Concern for the Person -The Person Model – Human Relations (The Hawthrone Studies) and Human Resources (Theory X and Y)

Concern for Politics - Rational and Non-rational Perspectives Concern for Culture - Leadership within the Cultural Perspective and

Professional Learning Communities Educational Administration as an Applied Science - A Reflective Practice

Perspective, and Educational Administration as a Moral Craft

Thank you for your attention