Explores the role and importance of faculty governance based on personal experience at the University of California, Berkeley (which has one of the country's strongest faculty governance systems) and the University of Michigan (with a weaker system more representative of national norms). Discusses the increasing market-related obstacles to…

Inadequate school facility planning carries fiscal, human, and academic costs. Building a responsive school requires that future inhabitants participate in the planning process. The accommodation of various building-use patterns, teaching methods, and learning styles reflects how satisfactorily a school building performs for its users. New…

When embarking on school/community-based management, nine Hawaii elementary schools trained their staff in facilitative leadership and received technical assistance from district offices. Schools can involve more parents by reaching a shared understanding about parental involvement, developing appropriate involvement strategies, providing parents…

Discusses the characteristics of unsuccessful attempts to implement collegial supervision (teachers helping teachers through feedback and advice) in schools, and discusses the insights these characteristics provide. Discusses one successful collegial supervision program. (SR)

Documents the growing tension between primary heads' administrative and professional roles and between top-down and collegial management styles, based on qualitative data from a national sample of 50 Welsh and English schools. Highlights the 1988 Education Reform Act's emphasis on monitoring and quality assurance and headteachers' developing…

Summarizes a study exploring decision-making quality among 45 participants, who were administered the Decision Making Inventory either as groups or individuals. There were few differences between individual and collaborative group decision-making formats. Individual skills were more effective regarding curriculum and discipline. There were no…

Case study of a community and youth leadership development program in Rural Georgia illustrates a blend of traditional and participatory strategies, including participatory action research. Evaluation demonstrates the importance of working with community culture, forming cohesive groups, choosing facilities carefully, and reconciling community and…

Discusses how to encourage a more conciliatory approach to governance between college trustees and faculty members. Examines four similarities between trustees and professors that fuel mutual frustration: deadwood on boards and faculties, organizational conservatism, unsolicited advice, and inconsistency. Recommends regular, two-way communication…

Examined staff decision making at a restructuring urban middle school, noting how some of the decisions were made. The decision making process included balancing the relative needs of individual students and the whole class; managing consensus, dissent, voice, and democracy; and recognizing leadership, authority, and accountability. Collective…

Uses the example of award-winning Black Hawk Middle School in Minnesota to examine: (1) developing a middle school architecture; (2) benefits of the house concept; (3) the need for staff involvement in school design; (4) assembling houses into schools; (5) reduced discipline problems; (6) fostering teacher collaboration; and (7) measuring success.…

Discusses findings of two (British) research projects initiated by the National Union of Teachers: a survey of NUT school representatives' views of EAZs and an evaluation of teachers' role in EAZs. Despite provision of high-quality professional-development opportunities, many teachers at EAZ schools feel that they do not "own" the…

This pyramid model of team development has four sides--awareness, behavior, communication, and direction--on a foundation of evaluation. The four equal sides of a pyramid represent the equal importance of the different roles, including leader, within a team. All team members are involved in evaluation and deciding what is important, which empowers…

It is generally believed that, when partnerships with civil society are created, members of the public become engaged in defining and solving problems, and as a result become empowered through enhanced understanding of substantive problems, and of the processes used by society to deal with them. In this context, two fundamental assumptions related…

The conducivity process, a methodology for creating healthier workplaces by promoting conducive production, is illustrated through the use of the "conducivity game" developed in the NordNet Project in Sweden, which was an action research project to test a job redesign methodology. The project combined the "conducivity" hypotheses about a…

The changing context of community colleges today is enough to make even the most versatile and experienced administrator's head spin. The constancy of change and the ways in which traditional responses fall short in addressing current challenges seem to relegate leaders to a place where they have a toolbox of strategies from which to draw in hopes…