Nearly a century ago, Emile Durkheim founded the sociology of educa tion on the French cultural and structural premise that the function of educators is to transmit culture from one generation to the next. The clarity of his vision was aided by the era, the place, and the actors in the learning environment. His was an era when the relatively seamless web of western culture, although ripping and straining, was still intact. The place, post-Napoleonic France, was vertically stratified and elaborately structured. And the teachers had reason to think they were agents of authority, whereas most students, during school hours at least, behaved as if they were the objects of that authority. Underlying the very notion of a sociology of education, then, was a visible and pervasive aura of a system and order that was culturally prescribed. Scholars of American education have yearned for such systems before and since Durkheim. Every European and English model has been emulated in a more or less winsome manner, from the Boston Latin School of the 1700s to the Open Education programs of the 1960s. In the last quarter century of research, it has begun to dawn on us, however, that no matter how hard American educators try, they do not build a system.

Klappentext

Nearly a century ago, Emile Durkheim founded the sociology of educa­ tion on the French cultural and structural premise that the function of educators is to transmit culture from one generation to the next. The clarity of his vision was aided by the era, the place, and the actors in the learning environment. His was an era when the relatively seamless web of western culture, although ripping and straining, was still intact. The place, post-Napoleonic France, was vertically stratified and elaborately structured. And the teachers had reason to think they were agents of authority, whereas most students, during school hours at least, behaved as if they were the objects of that authority. Underlying the very notion of a sociology of education, then, was a visible and pervasive aura of a system and order that was culturally prescribed. Scholars of American education have yearned for such systems before and since Durkheim. Every European and English model has been emulated in a more or less winsome manner, from the Boston Latin School of the 1700s to the Open Education programs of the 1960s. In the last quarter century of research, it has begun to dawn on us, however, that no matter how hard American educators try, they do not build a system.

Inhalt
1 Introduction.- Why Study Change in Rural Schools?.- The Federal Role in Education.- Basic Premises of the Rural Experimental Schools Program.- The Research Context.- Research Themes and Issues.- Overview of this Volume.- 2 The Research Context.- Elements of the Rational Approach to Change: The Stages of Change.- Elements of the Natural-Systems Approach to the Study of Change: The Systems Framework.- System Linkage and the Systems Framework.- 3 Methodology And Research Procedures.- The Context of the Study.- General Approach to Data Collection.- Strategies for Measurement and Analysis.- 4 On The Brink Of Change: The Federal Level And The Local Level.- Assumptions Underlying the Experimental Schools Program.- The Ten Rural School Districts and Their Readiness for Change.- 5 The Beginning Of Change: The Planning Year.- Federal Expectations for the Planning Period.- The Products of the Planning Process: An Overview of the ES Program.- The Assessment of Effective Initiation.- Whose Plan?.- 6 The Implementation Of Planned Change In Schools.- Measures of Implementation at the School Level.- A Descriptive Analysis of the Scope of Implementation in Schools.- Variations in Implementation within Districts.- Social System Characteristics: The Variables and Their Measures.- The Effect of System Characteristics on Implementation.- 7 Further Exploration Of Implementation In Schools.- Comparing the Contributions of Structure, Culture, and Input Variables to School Change.- Explaining Joint Contributions of Structure, Culture, and Input.- How Does the Structuring of Authority Affect Implementation?.- How Does System Linkage Affect School Implementation?.- Conclusions.- 8 Comprehensive Change At The District Level.- Measuring Implementation at the District Level.- How Comprehensive WasImplementation?.- Factors Related to Implementation.- Conclusions.- 9 The Continuation Of Change.- Our Approach to Investigating Continuation.- Factors Affecting the Outcomes of Change.- 10 Conclusions And Implications.- Contributions to a Theory of Change in Organizational Settings.- Implications for the Design and Management of Educational Change Programs.- References.- Appendix A Site-By-Site Descriptions Of The Ten Es Projects As Implemented And Continued.- Appendix B Instruments.- Appendix C Correlation Matrix Of Independent Variables.- Author Index.