Road Maps To Understand School Communication.

The most prevalent variable manifesting itself in schools is communication or, at least, it seems to be a most pervasive variable. What is communication? In what ways do humans communicate in schools? And how might the concept "school communication" be defined? To investigate possible ways to respond to these and other such questions, this paper presents five road maps in order to describe and better understand the concept "school communication." Each road map introduces an important perspective illuminating the discipline of communication. It is the combination of these five road maps, a "communication atlas," which provides an introduction to this discipline and how it facilitates understanding the important educational variable, school communication. The names of the five road maps are: (1) the cause-effect cluster; (2) the psychological cluster; (3) the interactive cluster; (4) the pragmatic cluster; and (5) the semiotic cluster. (Contains 2 figures and 33 references.) (Author/CR)