GED2903

Educational management: theory, research and practice

Associate Professor A C Townsend

12 points
* 3 hours per week
* Second semester
* Clayton

Objectives Upon successful completion of this subject, students should be able to question commonsense understandings about their work as educational managers; use their own experience in organisations as a means of interrogating organisational and administration theory, and of raising significant issues and questions; understand and analyse the social and cultural dynamics of organisational life and its implications for educational management; employ methods of organisational analysis in order to locate management within wider social and political contexts; understand the contribution made to educational management by certain key theorists and be able to critically appraise their work and its implications for their own educational and administrative practice; develop to a very high standard the skills required to analyse and appraise research reports and theoretical positions in terms of the adequacy of the different conceptual tools and assumptions they draw on, their accounts of practice, and their practical implications for the work of educational management.

Synopsis The aim of this subject is integrative, to enable students to bring together in a critical synthesis a number of perspectives in the field of educational administration. The subject examines theory and research in educational management, educational organisation, and the social, cultural and political context of educational governance. The perspectives offered will be reviewed critically in order to appraise their usefulness for Australian and Victorian educational administrators.

Assessment Assignment (8000 words): 100%

Recommended texts

Angus L and Brown L Becoming a `School of the Future': The micropolitics of policy implementation Faculty of Education, Monash University, 1997
Evers C W and Lakomski G (eds) Educational administration: An Australian perspective Allen and Unwin, 1995