This article aims to explore the innovation-related qualities of an ideal-type university as perceived by Polish academics at a public university who are characterized by attachment to the tradition of academic self-governance, Humboldtian ideals, autonomy, and academic freedom. The study employs Weberian ideal-type methodology and analyzes…

In the last six years, Chile has carried out major reforms in school climate policy. However, these reforms are tied to two different realities that conflict with each other: a formative reality, which promotes a school climate of local decision-making and the improvement of school performance; and a punitive reality, which prioritizes improvement…

While research has documented outcomes for students served by promise programs, few studies have considered the behavior of institutions themselves in the promise era. A new source of revenue combined with larger and more diverse cohorts is likely to motivate changes in spending and staffing--decisions instrumental to student access and success.…

Vice chancellors of public universities in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region face a myriad of challenges that require research- and data-driven decision-making. This paper presents a decision-making model for college and university leadership - The Two-Way Practitioner-Researcher Loop. This scholarship of practice has the…

This paper considers the role of independent research in helping an education and training system "know itself", illustrating this through the experience of the Centre for Educational Sociology (CES) of which David Raffe was a member and director. It highlights the tensions in the research-policy relationship arising from the different…

Much of the evidence translation literature focuses narrowly on the use of evidence in the initial policy formulation stages, and downplays the crucial role of institutions and the inherently political nature of policy making. More recent approaches acknowledge the importance of institutional and political factors, but make no attempt to…

As for all teacher education programs, historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) have been subject to a host of policy mandates for reform over the past three decades. As a group their approach to these changes has differed from those of majority institutions and their voice in the policy reform dialogue has been muted or absent. This…

The number of staff members serving American higher education institutions has more than doubled in the past twenty years, as occupations in technology, development, government relations, and even athletic administration have grown as never before in the history of the academy. As the number, variety, and importance of these positions have grown,…

The authors aim to identify characteristics of democratic schools. The Delphi technique used in this study is based on attaining a consensus among a group of experts over 3 rounds with 22 experts from 9 countries participating in the first round. By the end of the third round, 339 items referring to democratic school characteristics were…

This paper explores two different ontological positions from which policy in schools and teachers can be viewed. On the one hand, it explores the ways in which policies make up and make possible particular sorts of teacher subjects--as producers and consumers of policy, as readers and writers of policy. On the other, it begins to conceptualise the…

The way in which intraorganizational context can influence strategy making is shown by comparing six Canadian universities formulating retrenchment strategies. "Strategy" involves the components of the strategy, the process by which strategy is made, and the context in which strategy is formed. A variety of university contexts are…

The issues of whether decision making is guided by philosophy or whether pressures cause priorities and values to be shifted is explored through this description of resource allocation in a continuing education division of a large urban community college. (SK)

Discusses five characteristics of policy making within governmental sectors and the consequences of each for the social sciences: (1) degree of centralization, (2) characteristics of major policy actors; (3) characteristics of major institutions, (4) nature of decisions made by the sector, and (5) availability of alternate source of information.…

The ways that institutional researchers can analyze the political nature of their institutions and better understand the role institutional research plays in that environment are suggested. The major strength of an institutional research office is information and the analysis of information. (Author/MLW)

Reviews major topics involved in governance of academic libraries in a rapidly changing environment: (1) the academic environment and the library--organizational characteristics of both institutions; (2) academic governance patterns; (3) librarians and governance--faculty status, faculty status and governance, unions and governance, modifying the…