Search

This research studied accountability pressures faced by five school administrators, and explored collaborative autobiography as a way for administrators to reflect on and address those pressures. The administrators cycled back and forth between reflective writing and group dialogue as they contemplated accountability pressures, their life histories in relationship to the pressures, and their preferred future. The participants reported that the process helped them to better understand accountability pressures and develop strategies for negotiating those pressures. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The purpose of this qualitative study was to identify (1) teacher-leaders' descriptions of their roles and activities, (2) perceptions of characteristics, knowledge, and skills of successful teacher leaders, (3) barriers to and support needed for teacher leadership, (4) the extent to which teacher leaders helped teachers understand and respond to different cultures, and (5) the rewards of teacher leadership. Phase I of the study consisted of a survey of 177 teacher leaders across eight states representing all regions of the country. In Phase II we conducted interviews with 20 of the survey respondents to supplement survey data. Findings point to the complex nature of the roles and activities of teacher leaders. The data have implications for teacher leadership preparation and the ongoing support teacher leaders will need to actualize their roles within schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we describe how the Bush administration has used deceptive techniques and subterfuge to force its ideology upon the American people. We provide examples of similar techniques used to manipulate public opinion and national policy in three broad areas: national defense, science, and education. Our example from national defense policy, as one might guess, relates to the centerpiece of the Bush Administration, the Iraq War, and in particular the gathering and presenting of "evidence" on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction in order to gather public support for the war. The build up to the war provides examples of fabricated evidence, dire warnings, and manipulation of U. S. intelligence agencies, all orchestrated by the White House. The breadth of deception and manipulation of science by the Bush Administration is quite amazing, cutting across policy on endangered species, climate change, reproductive health, stem cell research, dietary science, and environmental pollution. This is a story of suppressing and tampering with scientific findings, intimidating scientists, manipulating the membership of scientific committees, and allowing representatives of industry and social conservative groups to write Administration policies or legislative proposals. We go on to show how many of the same techniques used by the Bush Administration in the build up to the Iraq War and in science have been adapted to control education in the U. S. under the guise of "evidence-based educational reform." We document Administration efforts to "scrub" educational documents to delete content that does not agree with the Administration's ideology, promote private management and private schools at the expense of public schools, and force schools to adopt commercial curricula favored by the Administration. Bush's attempts to control public education are explained by his allegiance to two major constituencies, social conservatives and the corporate sector, and his commitment to what we refer to as neoconservative federalism. We show how these three factors merge as the underlying basis of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and an array of other Administration efforts to control education. In a discussion focused on addressing the abuse of education by the Bush Administration, we suggest questions to critique the Administration's "evidence-based" initiatives. We argue that the evidence-based approach is a gross oversimplification and misrepresentation of educational research and authentic educational reform. Finally, we agree with Lather (2003) that the evidence-based approach and other deceptive practices of the Bush administration are part of an effort to take control of public education, and we argue for theory-based research as a vehicle for challenging the evidence-based approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the concepts of paradigm and paradigm shift in new supervision in education in the United States. Causes of paradigm shift; Transition from control to empowerment; Shifting paradigm in supervision; Shift from separate functions to integrated functions; Shift from occasional supervisor assistance to continuous collegial support networks.