School Bureaucracy Research Articles

Assessing the validity and reliability of enabling structure scale in mainland China

PurposeDeveloping an enabling bureaucratic structure for school organization has been an important aim of education governance reforms in China, like many societies across the globe, since the 1990s. However, there is a lack of valid measures to investigate the extent to which the Chinese education governance reforms facilitate the development of the enabling structure of school bureaucracy and examine the antecedents and consequences of enabling school bureaucracy. Thus, the study was conducted to validate the Chinese version of the Enabling Structure Scale (ESS-Ch), which is used to assess school bureaucracy in China.Design/methodology/approachThe study surveyed 1,146 teachers enrolled in professional development courses provided by a Beijing university. The validation process involved two phases. In the first phase, the sample was divided into three subgroups for exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and cross-validation. In the second phase, reliability and validity were assessed utilizing the entire sample.FindingsIt indicated a four-factor model of the ESS-Ch: enabling formalization, coercive formalization, enabling centralization and hindering centralization. Factor loadings ranged from 0.72 to 0.88, composite reliabilities ranged from 0.82 to 0.95 and values of average variance extracted ranged from 0.61 to 0.80.Research limitations/implicationsThe study contributes to the international literature by validating the ESS-Ch so as to provide a standard measure that can be applied in comparative studies on enabling school bureaucracy between Chinese and Western cultures.Originality/valueThe study is original by validating the ESS-Ch based on a sample of 1,146 teachers in China.

Principals' systems thinking and student outcomes: the intervening role of school structure

PurposeThis study examines the relationship of principals’ systems thinking (PST) to student outcomes of academic achievement and school violence. The investigation relies on the contingency theory, according to which effective leadership is contingent on the nature of the situational influences to which managers are exposed. Specifically, the study investigates the influence of school structure – bureaucratic vs organic – on the relationship between PST and student outcomes of academic achievement and school violence after accounting for students’ socioeconomic backgrounds and principals' demographics.Design/methodology/approachA three-source survey design with self-reported and non-self-reported data was used, with a sample of 423 participants from 71 elementary schools in Israel. The sample included senior management team members and teachers. The data were aggregated at the school level of analysis.FindingsHierarchical regression analyses showed that organic school structure moderates the relationship between PST and student academic achievement, and bureaucratic school structure moderates the relationship between PST and school violence beyond the impact of students’ socioeconomic backgrounds.Originality/valueThis study provides important evidence for the benefits of aligning PST with school structure for improving student outcomes beyond the impact of students’ socioeconomic backgrounds. In addition, the study suggests principal system thinking leadership to achieve effective student outcomes that circumvent the effects of inequality on disadvantaged student groups.

School bureaucracy and reproduction of stigmas in the students and their families

Resumo O artigo analisa os dados de uma pesquisa realizada com 23 gestores de escolas municipais do Rio de Janeiro, com o objetivo de investigar a relação da burocracia educacional com as famílias no decorrer dos processos de matrícula dos filhos. Mapearam-se, nas entrevistas em profundidade, as percepções dos gestores com relação aos estudantes e suas famílias, em parte orientadas por estigmas individuais e coletivos. Serão apresentados a tipologia proposta para interpretar esse conjunto de estigmas; a aplicação da tipologia na análise das entrevistas; e os argumentos quanto às ações dos burocratas, motivadas por tais estigmas. Os dados indicam que tais ações tendem a reproduzir desigualdades sociais de origem e a produzir novas formas de desigualdade no interior das escolas.

Interrogating the Myths of Education: Dorothy Bryant'sElla Price's JournalandMiss Giardino

Interrogating the Myths of Education: Dorothy Bryant's<i>Ella Price's Journal</i>and<i>Miss Giardino</i>

Effects of community youth teams facilitating participatory adolescent groups, youth leadership activities and livelihood promotion to improve school attendance, dietary diversity and mental health among adolescent girls in rural eastern India (JIAH trial): A cluster-randomised controlled trial

ObjectivesTo evaluate whether and how community youth teams facilitating participatory adolescent groups, youth leadership and livelihood promotion improved school attendance, dietary diversity, and mental health among adolescent girls in rural India. DesignA parallel group, two-arm, superiority, cluster-randomised controlled trial with an embedded process evaluation. Setting, intervention and participants38 clusters (19 intervention, 19 control) in West Singhbhum district in Jharkhand, India. The intervention included participatory adolescent groups and youth leadership for boys and girls aged 10–19 (intervention clusters only), and family-based livelihood promotion (intervention and control clusters) between June 2017 and March 2020. We surveyed 3324 adolescent girls aged 10–19 in 38 clusters at baseline, and 1478 in 29 clusters at endline. Four intervention and five control clusters were lost to follow up when the trial was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Adolescent boys were included in the process evaluation only. Primary and secondary outcome measuresPrimary: school attendance, dietary diversity, and mental health; 12 secondary outcomes related to education, empowerment, experiences of violence, and sexual and reproductive health. ResultsIn intervention vs control clusters, mean dietary diversity score was 4·0 (SD 1·5) vs 3·6 (SD 1·2) (adjDiff 0·34; 95%CI -0·23, 0·93, p = 0·242); mean Brief Problem Monitor-Youth (mental health) score was 12·5 (SD 6·0) vs 11·9 (SD 5·9) (adjDiff 0·02, 95%CI -0·06, 0·13, p = 0·610); and school enrolment rates were 70% vs 63% (adjOR 1·39, 95%CI 0·89, 2·16, p = 0·142). Uptake of school-based entitlements was higher in intervention clusters (adjOR 2·01; 95%CI 1·11, 3·64, p = 0·020). Qualitative data showed that the community youth team had helped adolescents and their parents navigate school bureaucracy, facilitated re-enrolments, and supported access to entitlements. Overall intervention delivery was feasible, but positive impacts were likely undermined by household poverty. ConclusionsParticipatory adolescent groups, leadership training and livelihood promotion delivered by a community youth team did not improve adolescent girls’ mental health, dietary diversity, or school attendance in rural India, but may have increased uptake of education-related entitlements. Trial registrationISRCTN17206016

Principals' systems thinking and teachers' withdrawal behaviours: The intervening role of school structure and principal–teacher gender (dis)similarity

AbstractRelying on the contingency theory, the present study examines the influence of school characteristics and principal–teacher gender (dis)similarity on the relationship between principals’ systems thinking (PST) and teacher withdrawal behaviours of absenteeism and intent to leave. Data were collected from two sources: 111 school management team members and 109 teachers (220 participants in total) randomly chosen from elementary schools in Israel. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that principal–teacher dissimilarity and a bureaucratic school structure moderate the relationship between PST and teachers’ withdrawal behaviours. These findings indicate that the organisational conditions under which principals practise systems thinking can affect teachers’ withdrawal behaviours. Therefore, this study may advance theory and practise regarding the implications of PST on withdrawal behaviours, which are an important determinant of teachers’ performance and a school's success.

One size fits all – utveckling av lärmiljöer för nyanlända elever i behov av specialpedagogiska stödinsatser

This study aims to increase the understanding of how learning environments have been developed for newly arrived immigrant pupils in need of special educational support measures according to special educators. In this way, knowledge can be deepened about obstacles and opportunities in the school system regarding the development of learning environments, which can have an impact on these pupils' learning. Free text responses from an e-questionnaire were analyzed through conventional content analysis. The analysis revealed varied descriptions of what characterizes the development of learning environments at schools. For example, many respondents described what characterizes as general adaptations as a kind of one size fits all solutions. Special educators also described support for language learning and language understanding in small groups, training for school staff and enhanced collaborations. The characterization of special educators´ descriptions is deepened and discussed with regard to obstacles and opportunities in the school system. To deepen the understanding, the results from this study are analyzed together with previous research and Skrtic's (1991; 2005) concept of the school system, reflecting school bureaucracies and adhocracy. The obstacles in the development of learning environments are found in special solutions, lack of efforts and unclear areas of responsibility, while successes are found in training for school staff and enhanced collaborations in joint professional work.

Bureaucratic Accountability In The Management of The Operational Fund School (BOS) (Case Study On Elementary Education Kupang)

The Government in a democracy should be accountable to the public because the public authority as the holder of the key. The Government should be more transparent and responsible in managing resources public funds or a public authority. Bureaucratic accountability carried out in a balanced internal and external way so that it can produce the performance of education bureaucrats in accordance with the rules and give a sense of smug for stakeholders in the education system. The research aims to find out the school internally and externally bureaucracy Accountability, the control between bureaucratic accountability in the school and methods can ensure the accountability of the school bureaucracy. This type of research uses the instrumental case studies to examine a case in order to be presented a perspective on the issue or theory. The data collected with qualitative methods, documents, archive footage, interviews, direct observation, as well as the role of observation, and physical devices. The informant set by purposive. Data validation using triangulation technique. Research results generate internal accountability carried out by the school. Management of the Fund BOS does not match the technical rules but the school's responsibility to accept the consequences of their performance. While the external accountability is not implemented by the school. The school did not involve the stakeholders of the school Committee, teachers and parents in the process of management of the Fund BOS, does not make use of the media the school as school accountability to the public as well as the use of funds of the BOS is not in accordance with the needs of the stakeholders. An imbalance of internal and external accountability requires a control method to ensure the accountability of public control that is supporting the implementation of the control hierarchy, professional, legal, and political.

Teacher bureaucracy in Portugal: Knowing to act

Excessive bureaucracy in schools is a recurring theme in conversations between teachers and recent research confirms that, from the perspective of Portuguese teachers, it is the main constraint for the development of better quality in education and a healthy work environment.&#x0D; In view of the diagnosis, a nationwide study was designed, aiming to collect the perceptions and expectations of change regarding the bureaucratic procedures of the profession. Questionnaire surveys were applied, collecting responses from statistically representative samples of 2434 teachers, 107 Principals and 49 presidents of the General Council. After categorization and analysis, a set of results was found with implications for practice.&#x0D; Teachers detect bureaucratic dysfunctions, point out the waste of time with useless and redundant processes, failures in the communication channels and understand that their professional time should be refocused in class instead of filling in documents. The Principals and the Presidents of the General Council understand that bureaucratic administration is important, but it must be adapted to the specificities of school organizations.&#x0D; This investigation points out ways to change procedures that simplify and streamline processes, overcoming the detected dysfunctionalities, while continuing to comply with legal requirements.

Ambivalence toward bureaucracy: responses from Korean school principals

PurposeGiven the context of accountability-driven policy environments, research has shown that school leaders perceive bureaucratic rules and protocols in negative ways, but they also utilize organizational structures and routines to lead changes. To better understand both enabling and hindering mechanisms of bureaucracy in schools, this study explores how Korean school principals understand and perceive bureaucratic structures using a lens of ambivalence. The authors draw on Weber's theory of bureaucracy, with a particular focus on the paradoxical aspect of bureaucracy that might be experienced by individuals within the system.Design/methodology/approachThis study analyzed qualitative data collected from 26 in-depth interviews with 10 Korean school principals between 2013 and 2015. The authors used the multiple cycles of coding to explore patterns and themes that emerged from the participants' responses.FindingsThe analysis of this study showed that the participants' ambivalent responses toward bureaucracy were particularly salient in three areas where formal organizational structures were changing through policy initiatives: teacher evaluation, electronic approval system and school-based management promoting decentralized decision making. The study participants reflected on how such changes can enable and/or hinder schools to achieve organizational goals and collective values, from the viewpoints of multiple aspects, which led to their ambivalent responses to bureacratic structures in school settings.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the understanding of school organizations by revisiting Weber's theory of bureaucracy in school settings. Using the lens of ambivalence enabled us to reconcile school principals' contradictory perceptions toward bureaucracy, which complicates analyses of tensions and paradoxical responses found in leadership practices within school systems.

Enabling School Bureaucracy, Psychological Empowerment, and Teacher Burnout: A Mediation Analysis

Teacher burnout is a psychological phenomenon affecting teachers’ effectiveness and wellbeing across the globe. Thus, education researchers have investigated its antecedents to identify approaches to alleviate teacher burnout. However, many of the existing studies tend to underline the effects of psychological factors but overlook the effects of structural factors on teacher burnout. Thus, the aim of this study is to fill the research gap by investigating how teacher burnout is affected by enabling school bureaucracy as a structural factor and psychological empowerment as a psychological factor based on empowerment theory. By using the self-administrated questionnaire survey, the study investigated 322 primary and secondary schoolteachers from China. It finds that structural empowerment and psychological empowerment are negatively associated with teacher burnout. Moreover, the relationship between structural empowerment and teacher burnout was mediated by psychological empowerment, especially its dimensions of meaning and competence.

The Effect of Bureaucratic School Structure on Teachers' Job Satisfaction: The Mediator Role of the Organizational Justice

The Effect of Bureaucratic School Structure on Teachers' Job Satisfaction: The Mediator Role of the Organizational Justice

Motivational and Demotivational Factors Affecting a Teacher’s Decision on Whether to Do Research

One of the teacher’s basic tasks should be to ensure that the quality of his/her educational work is continually enhanced by the application of practitioner research, as a recognised genre of educational research. The aim of this study was to explore factors that can motivate or demotivate teachers to include research in their educational practice. An online questionnaire was addressed to all Slovenian primary and secondary school teachers and full responses were received from 325 teachers. Although the teachers expressed high perceived self-confidence in their research abilities, this did not transfer to research activity, as only about one quarter of the respondents reported that they performed research. The main drivers of research are an intrinsic motivation for research and career goal orientation, followed by the relatively low influence of important others. Practitioner research is highly valued among teachers, so there must be other factors at work preventing more teachers from starting research activities. Among the leading factors recognised as obstacles are those that can be regarded as facilitating conditions in terms of motivational theory. Work overload, lack of time, school bureaucracy and family life can be regarded as competing with research for the teacher’s time, along with other important issues. The school climate cannot be regarded as the main obstacle to research. The findings call for the reallocation of at least some work duties in favour of research as part of regular employment.

Beyond the Low‐Hanging Fruit: Reducing Racial Inequality by Rethinking School Safety Efforts

In this essay, I examine the problem of excessive and racially disproportionate school discipline. I begin by considering how each of the four most popular Democratic candidates in the presidential primary race as of January 2020 addresses this issue. Excessive and racially disproportionate school discipline harms students, schools, and communities, and it deepens existing racial inequalities. Each candidate promises some remedy, and all represent a step in the right direction. However, all of their proposals are shallow. To fruitfully address these issues, policymakers must consider the cultural embeddedness of school discipline, how it is implemented within complex school bureaucracies, and the underlying racial inequality that shapes school discipline. Policymakers must also draw attention to the fact that schools are, overall, safe and do not require the massive investments in security personnel and technology that draw funds away from more effective supports for students.

Two cheers for school bureaucracy

Bureaucracies are often perceived as inflexible, impersonal, hierarchical, and too devoted to rules and red tape. But David Labaree makes a case for these characteristics being a positive in the world of public education. U.S. schools are built within a liberal democratic system, where the liberal pursuit of self-interest is often in tension with the democratic pursuit of egalitarianism. In recent years, Labaree argues, schools have tilted toward the liberal side, enabling privileged families to game the system to help their children get ahead. In such a system, an impersonal bureaucracy stands as a check that ensures that the democratic side of schooling, in which all children are treated equally, remains in effect.

Neoliberal challenges in context: a case of Hong Kong

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to systematically analyze the neoliberal challenges and problems facing public schools in the particular Hong Kong context. Design/methodology/approach Based on a systematic and critical analysis on the history and socio-political context of Hong Kong’s school policies and practice as well as the official documents and statistics, this paper examines the impacts of neoliberalism in four main aspects of school education in Hong Kong: school governance, accountability, privatization and government expenditure. Findings Convergence, as well as deviation, on neoliberal globalization occurs in the particular Hong Kong context. School bureaucracy has irresistibly expanded. Policymakers have placed increasing emphasis on instrumentally evaluating schools while decentralizing, diversifying and privatizing education. School leadership has become focused solely on succeeding within those imposed performance management and metrics, pulling ahead of school competitions and prioritizing easily quantifiable and measurable tasks. Teachers have faced a potential threat from the loss of autonomy through the market logic and consumerist metrics. The rise of privatized education has further intensified school practices based on competitiveness and performativity. On the other hand, resource cutbacks and financial constraints – problems that are generally inflicted by neoliberal discourse – have rarely occurred in Hong Kong. Research limitations/implications This study is part of concerted efforts in research that adopts the comparative and critical perspectives emerging from different social contexts to consider and flesh out how neoliberalism look across the school systems, how it challenges the systems differently, and how it evokes various responses from within the systems (Apple, 2001). Taken all the efforts together, a finely nuanced understanding of the trails of neoliberalism can help collectively re-discover school education as a social good, and collectively re-imagine and reshape alternatives for the future. Originality/value This paper offers an international and comparative perspective and further nuances to an understanding of how neoliberal policies and ideology are recontextualized in countries across the globe given particularities of different local contexts.

Teachers' Professional Development Coaching Based on Islamic Boarding School Culture

This article aims at describing the process of teachers' professional development based on Islamic boarding school culture including pattern of interaction in teacher training, approaches to teacher development, stakeholder involvement in teacher training, supervision and evaluation of the implementation of teacher training based on Islamic boarding schools. This research was conducted employing comparative inductive data analysis, multi-site design, and qualitative approach. This research found there are five interaction patterns used for development namely: interaction pattern of once-in-a-month regular recitation, the interaction pattern of imtikhan, interaction pattern of congregational prayers, interaction pattern of get-together (silahturahmi), interaction pattern of once-in-a-month regular meetings. And Secondly, it is about the four approaches in professional development namely: In-Group approach, individual approach, seniority approach, and Islamic boarding school bureaucracy approach. And Thirdly, the stakeholder involvement in the coaching namely: Social figure (the head of the village), school committee, UTM (Universitas Truno Joyo) Bangkalan lecturers, the headmaster of Junior High School 2 Kamal, school supervisors. Fourth, supervision and evaluation namely: the administers of supervisor and evaluation are the chairman of the foundation, headmaster, vice principal, Islamic boarding school coach, school supervisor, five senior teachers and school committee.

THE MEDIATING EFFECT OF SCHOOL-BASED MANAGEMENT ON SCHOOL CLIMATE, BUREAUCRACY AND EFFECTIVENESS IN SECONDARY SCHOOL

School effectiveness is a global issue among education stakeholders particularly in developing countries where difficulties in delivering quality education is widespread. However, internal and external factors in schools make school outcomes unpredictable, thus making bureaucracy an effective managerial and analytical tool which can be used to examine and direct organizational structure. This study examined the mediating effect of school-based management on school climate, bureaucracy and effectiveness in secondary schools. A quantitative research of cross-sectional survey with population of 7,533 teachers was employed. Four sets of instruments were adapted and administered on sample of 350 teachers in Nigeria secondary schools through stratified random sampling of the proportionate method. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) analysis was employed to test the fitness of data in relation to constructs in the model and further confirm hypotheses generated for this study. The findings of revealed that underlying predictors were true measure of their respective constructs. There is a mediation effect of school-based management on bureaucracy and school effectiveness while other path analysis revealed that school-based management did not mediate between school climate and school effectiveness. This study expands theory on bureaucracy as bright side and validates the assertion that, bureaucracy is required in public schools.

What Happened on July 21st: An Investigation of Trauma and Trigger Warnings in the English Classroom

ABSTRACT The controversy surrounding trigger warnings has highlighted a mystifying confound in post-secondary education. Faculty, students and school bureaucracies are divided. While trigger warning proponents emphasise the value of protecting students with trauma histories from unscaffolded exposure to content related to sexuality, violence, race and political strife, agonists interpret the trigger warning as a threat to academic freedom, artistry and professor autonomy. This paper presents an episode that occurred at a prominent school of education, in which an instructor’s choice of content triggered a post-traumatic response in a student. As the story unfolds, the narrative shifts back and forth between the instructor’s and the student’s experience of the event. The piece concludes with a commentary made by a clinical psychologist and trauma expert, who weighs in on the challenges confronting both professors and students, as each attempts to navigate handling emotionally charged, potentially triggering contents in the post-secondary classroom.

Employing the Subsequent Four Years of the Libyan Education Reform Strategy: Administrations and Contributors

This paper is the third continuation of the previously published paper “National Libyan Public Education Reform: Entire Transformative Strategies, 2020–2026” (November 2017), which proposes a complete framework for reforming Libyan public education and reflects on the difficulties that educators and learners have faced due to existing confusing conditions. It divides the entire reform plan into six years of gradual reform actions to overcome their complications; these complications stem from the discouraged forms of education, changeable curricula, bureaucratic schools and university administrations, the conservative community, and uncertain education strategies. Another factor is the way that learners acquire information (that is, their learning styles). In addition, upheavals all over Libya have affected the overall stability of education in Libya and led to there being two ministries of education (East and West Libya). Thus, six years of gradual reform stages were proposed so that a new generation of students would start with pre-kindergarten in the academic year 2026 or the equivalent. This paper also is subsequent to the prior published paper (16 May 2018) on the same reverence project, “Contextualizing the First Two Years of the Libyan Education Reform Proposed Strategies (2020–2026): Targeted Candidates and Reflective Activities,” which explains in depth the suggested Phase I of the first two years (2020–2022) of the proposal for reforming Libyan education (2020–2026 or equivalent years). The purpose of this paper is to explain in depth the suggested subsequent four years (2022–2026 or equivalent years) of the proposed strategy of a six-year reform and come out with clearly constructed strategy without conflicting laws or regulations in the country.