Organisational studies in an era of educational reform

Abstract

One social science base for educational administration proposed in the Baron and Taylor collection was organisation theory. In the event this expectation turned out to be over-optimistic. Organisation theory was much too contested and insufficiently pragmatic for the British taste. Major developments in this field occurred mainly in the USA. Nevertheless, the more general approach of organisational studies continues to enhance our understanding of schools where a ‘both-and’ perspective is adopted towards organisational dualities, particularly in the face of what we have provocatively termed ‘transformania’. The article explores the unintended consequences of relentless transformania through three examples of duality: organisation–institution, bureaucracy–professionality, and the culture of teaching–the culture of managerialism. Finally, it is suggested that a revival of an interest in the somewhat dormant theory of ambiguity would be timely.

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