Educational Administration: Theory, Research, and Practice

Citation

Goldwyn, S. (2008), "Educational Administration: Theory, Research, and Practice", Journal of Educational Administration, Vol. 46 No. 1, pp. 123-127. https://doi.org/10.1108/09578230810849862

With current changes in local, state, and federal policies focusing on the relationship between educational leadership and student achievement, it is no surprise that understanding what is being taught in principal preparation and other educational leadership programs has come under scrutiny. The ever‐changing role and increased pressures placed upon principals has made it imperative that these preparation programs use materials that prepare today's school leaders to meet the new challenges they must face. The book Educational Administration: Theory, Research, and Practice by Wayne K. Hoy and Cecil G. Miskel, serves as a great overview into this changing world of educational leadership. The text, in its eighth edition, takes a conceptual overview that administrators can apply to the field despite numerous ongoing policy changes. Meanwhile revising this particular edition by including new knowledge, a new topic on instructional decision‐making, the inclusion of case studies and highlights at the end of each chapter allows this book to be innovative and updated.

The text looks at a number of different issues directly relevant to school leadership and frames each of these topics within three critical elements of educational science: the role that theory serves in the field, how this theory relates to and guides research, and the complex relationship between these two facets and practice itself. The text focuses on three underlying assumptions about the field of educational administration: first, there is a fair amount of knowledge about educational administration as an organization that is neglected by those in the field; second, that schools should be viewed as open systems to best organize and apply the theory and research relative to schools; and third, that using sound theory and research guides strong administrative practice. These three assumptions present an overview of the elements of educational leadership that allow for effective management, problem‐solving, and decision making.

Each of the chapters tackles a specific concept relative to schools. The authors present both a theoretical and conceptual framework of that particular topic and provide relevant research examples. Each chapter concludes with a case study specifically related to educational leadership, complete with questions to guide your thinking. The overall driving theme of the book focuses on the integration and application of theory‐driven research into practice. Hoy and Miskel (2008) present the chapters in a manner that models this association, focusing on theory and research, and then makes the connection to practice through the use of case studies.

The first chapter, “The school as a social system”, focuses on the school as an organization. It looks at the history of organizational theory, focusing on the social groups within an organization, by looking at three organizational systems perspectives: rational systems, natural systems, and open systems. Hoy and Miskel (2008) view schools as open systems throughout the text, defining open systems as systems that lend itself to the inclusion of elements of both natural and rational features, and that in open systems, organizational behaviors are a combination of the structure of the organization and the individual needs of its members.

Additionally, in this chapter Hoy and Miskel (2008) transition to the premise of the book: looking at the school as a formal organization through a social system model. A social system is (p. 22) “characterized by an interdependence of parts, a clearly defined population, differentiation from its environment, a complex network of social relationships, and its own unique culture”. Hoy and Miskel (2008) highlight the key elements of social systems, including that they are peopled, political, structural, and sanction‐bearing. Of these principles, Hoy and Miskel (2008) identify structure, individual needs, politics, the technical core of teaching and learning, outcomes, and the internal and external feedback loops as the most important elements of the school as a social system. Setting up this background provides the reader with a rationale for the subsequent chapters in this book.

The next chapter, “The technical core”, focuses on the teaching and learning process. According to Hoy and Miskel (2008), the technical core is the function of organizational actions that produce the outcomes. For example, teaching is the action used to produce learning. This chapter addresses both theoretical perspectives as well as teaching techniques of the behaviorist approach, cognitive approach and constructivist approach.

In chapter three, “Structure in schools”, the authors focus on the patterns of structure that are applied to schools. The authors look at bureaucratic patterns on schools, recognizing that the different elements of a bureaucracy are present in schools. However, the authors speculate that these models neglect important features that are critical to schools as an organization. Instead, Hoy and Miskel (2008) assert that schools are a combination of bureaucratic and professional patterns. They further dichotomize these patterns, claiming that through the various combinations of these patterns four types of schools will emerge: Weberian, authoritarian, professional, and chaotic. The authors make an excellent point in examining how schools fluctuate between these school types, claiming that ideally schools should fall in the professional structures, but likely they will fluctuate between chaotic and authoritarian. This chapter also deals with how structures create schools that are enabling or hindering as organizations. Finally, this chapter looks at Mintzberg's perspectives on structure and how these are applied to schools.

Chapters four and five both focus on the human aspect of the organization of schools. Chapter four, “Individuals in schools” looks at those individuals who are members of the school team, as well as how their individual needs motivate and affect their behavior. Drawing on theoretical perspectives from Maslow and Herzberg and other theories relative to motivation, Hoy and Miskel (2008) discuss the various physiological and emotional needs that the drive the constituents' beliefs about causality, outcomes, efficacy, capability, and goal setting. Additionally, this chapter touches on how these different needs, beliefs, and goals impact intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Chapter five, “Culture and climate in schools”, expands on this idea of individual needs. This chapter asserts that there is a reciprocal relationship between individual needs and organizational culture. The authors define organizational culture as a combination of shared norms, shared beliefs and values, tacit assumptions, and address the different cultures that are present in schools, including cultures of efficacy, collegial trust, and academic optimism.

Hoy and Miskel would be remiss to overlook the authority and politics present in schools. They address this facet of schools in their chapter “Power and politics in schools”. This chapter focuses not only on the different forms of authority in schools, but additionally looks at administrative behaviors in schools. Perhaps this is one of the most important chapters in the text, as it draws on information from both the different types of authority that administrators can assume (charismatic, traditional, legal, formal, functional, or informal) as well as subordinate responses to these forms of power. Hoy and Miskel touch on the need for balance by administrators, both in the triangulation of authority, ideology and expertise, as well as the balance between politics and power. Finally, this chapter touches on the interaction between conflict management styles and problem solving among organizational culture.

Chapter seven fits nicely with the discussion of internal and external coalitions in the previous chapter. “External environments of schools” addresses the impact of environmental influences on the culture and behaviors of the school. Viewing schools as an open system, Hoy and Miskel put forward that schools are highly dependent on their external environment. Hoy and Miskel (2008) present three theoretical perspectives on the interaction with the environment: information theory, resource‐dependence theory, and institutional theory. Each of these theories is highly relevant to schools, as different schools will be dealing with their environments in a number of different ways. The focus in addressing these theories appears to be talking about ways that the administrator can minimize the impact that these relationships with external environments for minimal impact on organizational autonomy and effectiveness.

“School effectiveness, accountability, and improvement” deals with a topic that is critical to the success of schools: school reform. This chapter focuses primarily on school effectiveness as it is measured by accountability systems. It touches on standards based assessments, professional development surrounding these procedures, and comprehensive, systemic reform. Though this chapter takes a theoretical approach to understanding this prominent aspect of educational administration as opposed to a practical approach, it addresses content that is critical to the success of administrators.

“Decision making in schools” and “Shared decision making: empowering teachers” again are two chapters that go well together. Collectively, these two chapters address the patterns of decision making that leaders, both formal and informal, engage in schools. It speaks to the integration between values, culture, and beliefs and the decision‐making procedures. Additionally, there is a discussion of moving into the shared decision making process by including teachers and other informal leaders into this process. Again taking a theoretical approach as opposed to a practical one, these two chapters focus heavily on the relationship between decision‐making processes and the school as an organization as a whole.

“Communication in schools”, focuses primarily on communication networks that emerge naturally and prescriptively in schools. It is an extremely important chapter, dealing with the different communication techniques that have been successful and the importance of proper communication. Not only focusing on communication within the organization, this chapter also addresses communication with external influences on the organization.

The final chapters, “Leadership in schools” and “One last time: a review of the school as a social system” essentially serve as a culmination of the previously discussed topics. They focus on the role of the educational leader within the school using a social systems perspective. They also address what different things influence the educational leader, and important considerations that the educational leader must address.

Though the book is set up in such a way to include research and practice, this is primarily a theory‐based text. Despite this theory‐driven approach, the authors do a nice job of giving a comprehensive overview of the school as an organization. The inclusion of widely accepted theory equips those interested in educational leadership with both traditional and innovative perspectives necessary for a widespread understanding of the role of the administrator in schools. This book is most suitable for researchers, professors of educational leadership, and students in the field. The authors rely heavily on theory‐based research, and take a somewhat basic approach to ensure thorough understanding of concepts. This book provides an overview of a number of important topics relative to school administration/leadership making Educational Administration: Theory, Research, and Practice a book that ought to be a compulsory addition to any leadership preparation program.