Lecture 8

							            Lecture 8:
    The School as a social system


•The participatory management model
•Theory X, Y and Z
•TQM
•The school as a social system.
The participatory management model

• Places greater emphasis on teacher
  morale and job satisfaction
• Stresses the importance of motivating
  teachers and building organization to
  fulfill it.
• The organization is structured to satisfy
  teachers’ needs, thus facilitating high
  teacher productivity.
              Theory X


• Theory X works on the assumption
  that the average person dislikes
  work and therefore needs to be
  coerced, controlled, directed and
  threatened.
              Theory Y
• On the other hand, Theory Y is based
  on the assumptions that
  (a) work is natural, (b) commitment is
  based on the rewards for achievement
  and (C) under proper environment,
  people accept and seek responsibility.
             Theory Z
• Theory Z is like Theory Y, however,
  stresses on TQM with emphasis on
  teamwork, training and extensive
  collection and analysis of data.
              TQM (Deming, 1988)
                 (Key Principles)

• Create constancy of purpose – improve
  quality of education for all students.
• Adopt the new philosophy – rethink school
  mission, priorities, teaching learning
  strategies (together) where success for every
  student is the main goal.
        TQM (principles continued)
• Cease dependency on heads to achieve quality
  (prevention is better than cure) – head start
  and follow through pre-school to tertiary
  education.
• End the business of awarding business on the
  basis of prize alone – schools must establish
  long-term relationships of loyalty and trust.
• Improve quality and productivity – teaching
  learning approaches based on the latest
  research, consistent with learning styles,
  multiple intelligences, providing for a wide
  range of students (handicapped, learning
  disabled, at-risk and special education needs.
          TQM (principles continued)
• Institute training/professional development on
  the job (new teaching learning strategies, new
  assessment strategies and new management
  system-IT).
• Institute leadership – systems thinking.
• Drive out fear – focus on processes and
  outcomes and try not to blame individuals for
  failures.
• Breakdown barriers among staff – focus on
  interdisciplinary instruction, team teaching,
  writing across the curriculum and transfer of
  learning (vocationalizing).
                TQM (continued)

• Institute a vigorous program of education
  and training – new methods of school
  management (group dynamics, consensus
  building, collaborative styles of decision-
  making).
• Put everyone to work to accomplish the
  transformation – clear plan of action to
  workout the mission, internalize the quality
  mission.
                In brief TQM

• focuses on students and the
    community
•   is dedicated to continual improvement
    – personally and collectively
•   sees the school as a true learning
    organization
•   views the school as a social system.
•   is the responsibility of top school
    management.
       School as a Social System

• A social system refers to activities and
  interactions of groups of members brought
  together for a common purpose.
• A useful framework to understand this is the
  Getzels-Guba model.
• They see a social system as involving two
  dimensions: institutions (with certain roles
  and expectations) and individuals (with
  certain personalities and need-dispositions.
         Institution    Role           Role Expectations




Social                                                     Observed
System                                                     Behavior



         Individual    Personality   Need-Dispositions
           Cultural dimensions
• The classroom is a unique social system –
  mediated by cultural factors (ethos, mores
  and values) as well as psychological
  aspects.
• This models also has three conflicts – role
  conflicts, personality conflicts and role-
  personality conflicts.
       Getzels’ latest model:communities
          dimension (6 communities)

•   Local communities
•   Administrative community
•   Social community
•   Instructional community
•   Ethnic community
•   Ideological community
              Task

We can view the school as a social
system. Discuss this statement
providing illustrations from your
school.