One undergraduate's transformational story of self-discovery and personal development frames this discussion of the importance of undergraduate involvement in social justice research. In this article, the authors first share a bit about the national landscape regarding community-university engagement initiatives. They also share research findings…

Jacques Derrida wrote about democratic leadership in educational institutions throughout his later work, but in this article the author notes the importance of Derrida's essays published as "Eyes of the University" (2004). Derrida begins by returning to questions raised by Immanuel Kant two centuries earlier with regard to the founding of the…

This study explored the strategic use of negotiating as a tool for creating and enhancing democratic communities. A total of 44 principals from four elementary schools, two middle schools, and one high school, provided data for this study. Results found that within schools, principals used certain skills to negotiate bureaucratic roles, and…

This paper describes how administrator preparation programs can help future education leaders to value, understand, and use the democratic strategy of deliberative dialogue and action. The purpose of the strategy is to engage in a new way with teachers, parents, and other stakeholders about problems in their local public schools. Follow-up…

No one should presume to tell a college or university what its governance structure should be. In fact, there is no "general" model of governance, shared or otherwise, that can be replicated from place to place. Each institution is differently situated with respect to its history and mission; its size; the number and nature of its programs; its…

The community college has carved out a well-deserved role in higher education as "democracy's college." The yoke of responsibility carried by community colleges today--and the scope of the challenges they can anticipate in the future--requires the dedication of visionary, skilled leaders who understand how to make good on the promise of…

The public schools in the US should go beyond teaching fundamental skills in a democratic society. The teachers should be allowed to interact with students as whole persons and new policies should be developed that treats the schools as a whole community because the future of the children and democracy depends on them.

An urban community has forced the issue to get the school that it wants and that its children rightly deserve. The indispensable feature of successful schools in a functioning democracy include creating an authentic community capable of identifying obstacles and opportunities, setting standards and expectations, and deciding how best to provide…

Economic elitism cripples democracy. Political rights without the material conditions necessary for citizens to exercise their rights are meaningless. Education should empower students to recognize that economic rights are linked with political rights and both are grounded in basic humanity. (MD)

This article reports on a focus group which was one of four principal focus groups held across the United States in Florida, Virginia, New Mexico, and Missouri as part of Voices 3, a national research project on the status of the principal and superintendent roles, sponsored by the University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA). In other…

Examines management approaches in ethical terms, arriving at numerous criteria applicable to educational administration. Discusses scientific management, morally neutral concepts, hyperrationalization, tightening of controls, and the business/industry model as having eclipsed or confused the moral dimensions of education. Calls for enlarged moral…

Critiquing the bureaucratization of Federal Civil Service, the author suggests production by workers would be promoted by the introduction of the profit motive and the use of performance management. Civil service pay, benefits, security, and prestige should be the rewards of efficient production. (MD)

Over the past three decades, the forces of globalisation--economic, political and cultural--have significantly affected institutions and people across the world: altering in some ways the very terrain of public and private life. Public education has in no small way been challenged by new realities and new demands in an increasingly interdependent…

The objective of this article is to examine the rhetoric of educational leadership within a Scandinavian context, as it occurs within the framework of New Public Management. The study asks questions about new demands on leadership expressed in policy documents. Local culture and distinctive aspects of national life tend to modify external…

Discusses the history of debate about the roles of indoctrination versus free inquiry in the classroom in American education. Many present-day theorists may discover what educators of the 1930s found: that there is no contradiction between transmitting democratic values while opposing censorship and indoctrination. (MD)