The association between bureaucratic principles and contrived collaboration: implications for school management

• Main Author: Naidoo, Shamala
• Published: 2010
• Subjects: School management and organization; Teacher participation in administration; Management employee participation
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/3289

M.Ed. === Educational organisations on the international front are being bombarded by a proliferation of in-vogue terminology such as participative management, collaboration, shared vision and decentralisation that are associated with the collegial management model. However, an in-depth critical analysis of international educational systems reveal that these new-age concepts associated with collegiality are more theoretical in nature and seldom translated into practice in schools (Sergiovanni and Starratt, 1988). There are still deep seated bureaucratic principles embedded in the management fibre of schools and this gives rise to a false type of working together namely “contrived collegiality”, in an effort to comply with the existing demands perpetuated by legislature and policy. According to Hargreaves (1994: 192) contrived collegiality, as opposed to genuine collegiality, arises through administrative control, and is imposed on the teachers regardless of their desires.