__ LIPS – Leading in Public Schools

This paper from 2003 is an interesting read.  Look in particular at the tables which compare traditional practice with what could actually be transformational ideas.  Part of the abstract follows. Just how do we solve the conundrum of a push for devolution on the one hand, and a highly centralised need to manage the risks around a very politicised policy context ?

Game, set and match : bureaucracy 1, schools 0 : time to change the rules?

A scan of the organisational structures of government education departments in Australia and elsewhere suggests that they remain hierarchical, bloated and bureaucratic. This is despite school-based management (devolution) trends across the last decade or so that have proclaimed greater autonomy for schools and leaner, meaner supporting central and in some systems regional or district structures. This paper, however, argues that, in the main, the plethora of past reforms and restructures of education systems, schools and schooling has not resulted in much change for central bureaucracies at all.

Click to read the entire paper