This article reviews three books: (1) "Elite Education: International Perspectives" (edited by C. Maxwell and P. Aggleton); (2) "Class Choreographies: Elite Schools and Globalisation" (J. Kenway, J. Fahey, D. Epstein, A. Koh, C. McCarthy, and F. Rizvi); and (3) "Corporate Elite and the Reform of Public Education"…

In this article, the author reviews Christopher Branson's book entitled "Leading Educational Change Wisely". The book provides an alternative and engaging perspective on leading educational change. Branson utilises "wisdom" as its central conceptual device to present a thought-provoking and philosophical account on how leaders are able to build a…

In this essay, the author reviews "Education Reform in New York City: Ambitious Change in the Nation's Most Complex School System," by Jennifer A. O'Day, Catherine S. Bitter, and Louis Gomez. The book under review explores a larger set of issues, and some time has passed. But many of the issues studied remain relevant and the consistent…

Purpose: The authors review a volume that emerged from a 2-year participatory effort to look at new research directions in educational administration. The review is presented as a conversation between two researchers--an old-timer (Karen Seashore Louis) and a relative newcomer (Meredith Honig)--to probe for differences and convergence in…

The organizing framework of the second "Handbook" preserved a measure of continuity with the first edition in stressing organizational, managerial, and environmental issues. Although Talcott Parson's schema was used to organize this volume, his historical influence on the field was not acknowledged. Kuhn's paradigm work should also be…

Discusses Greenfield's understanding of theory and science and its place in educational administration, beginning with the New Movement's conception of administrative science and its supposed relevance for administrative practice. Considers Greenfield's trenchant criticisms of traditional science in administration and explore his research agenda…

Focuses on the paradigm talk on display in two "Handbook" chapters on next-generation methods for studying educational administration and new research paradigms for improving schooling. Discusses how talk about paradigms shapes our thinking and affects what we say about research methods on one hand and substantive issues on the other.…

Critiquing "The Handbook of Research on Educational Administration (1999), a researcher and four graduate students respond individually to chapters on scholarship, knowledge-base development, and school-leadership history. Comments on the field's "big tent politics," communities of scholars, equity and racial issues, relevance, and…

Reviews "The Knowledge Factory" (Aronowitz 2000), "The Corporate Campus" (Turk 2000), "Academic Capitalism" (Slaughter and Leslie 1999), and "The Corrosion of Character" (Sennett 1998). Discuses their depiction of the impact of market forces on higher education; criticizes the neglect of diversity issues in these works. (SK)

These two books take a similar approach to educational administration in asserting that good administration is a matter of philosophy. The philosophies they support are quite different, however, with "Outstanding School Administrators" taking a business management approach and "Leadership for the Schoolhouse" accepting a communitarian philosophy.…

Discusses Max Weber's importance in Greenfield's work, particularly in Greenfield and Ribbins'"Greenfield on Educational Administration" (1993). In concentrating on human actors' subjective understanding, Greenfield was a faithful Weberian. However, he deviated from Weber by disavowing structural explanations of social and organizational…

Both the 1988 and 1999 editions of "Handbook of Research on Educational Administration" suggest that continuing dialogue about educational administration scholarship is warranted as conditions in schooling and society change. Handbook and "EAQ" editors asked several expert researchers to write articles about one or more…

A British management scholar critiques Greenfield and Ribbins'"Greenfield on Educational Administration" (1993), considering the book's contribution to educational administration theory, relevance to practitioner vision, pertinence to administrative science, and connection with political philosophy. This book of selected works reveals…

Discusses Greenfield's fourfold contribution to the study of decision making. Greenfield strengthened the legitimacy and respectability of case studies and argued that the individual was the beginning point of organizational analysis. He also fused two polarities in educational administration studies (the social sciences and the humanities) and…

Themes discussed in reviews of seven books on educational management include the profession's changing context, management of change, managerial discourses, leadership micropolitics, the shift from management to leadership, power and values, and the education/management linkage. Educational management should stress educational goals, not…