Background: The term "distributed leadership" is now widely used among scholars and practitioners in the field of educational leadership. Major actors in the nonprofit sector promote and financially support the development of distributed leadership. Unfortunately, there is confusion and ambiguity about what "distributed leadership" means, and…

Purpose: This article explores distributed leadership as it relates to two teacher teams in one public secondary school. Both situational and social aspects of distributed leadership are foci of investigation. Methods: The qualitative study used constant comparative analysis and discourse analysis to explore leadership as a distributed phenomenon.…

Each of the articles included in this issue launched the author backward into nostalgia and reconsideration of her own work as they motivated her to ask new questions in current and future studies. The author's goal, therefore, is not to provide a linear road map through the articles but to point to themes and ideas that run through the project…

In this reaction, the author concentrates on evaluating the study's broader interpretive claims. He states that the articles reviewed have the following three purposes: (1) to explore the ways in which a variety of factors shape school change over time; (2) to show how the five factors combine at key points in the story to create what Ivor…

The social justice discourse in education has been critiqued by Bowers and others for its lack of attention to a broad range of related ecological issues. This article analyzes and critiques the current discourse of social justice in the field of educational leadership and offers an expanded concept of socioecological justice in schools. Arguing…

Foster anchors his analysis of educational leadership by situating the function of schooling as bureaucratic control over individuals. Within the context of schools as a systemic, rule-bearing institution, Foster challenges the work of educational leaders. Are educational leaders virtuous and free or are they mere agents of the state? Foster pits…

Despite Professor Wraga's positive claims (in this same "Educational Administration Quarterly" issue), there is a substantial record of failure associated with the comprehensive high school--a stratifying institution that broadens the gap between the fortunate and disadvantaged. Urban high schools have low standards and are resistant to…

Explores the potential of specialized computer simulation languages to facilitate the development of more sophisticated and valid models for use in the analysis of administrative planning and decision-making problems. (Author)

Argues that the major metaphor driving the scientific study of administration ignores four critical dimensions of the practice of administration. The four dimensions are confidentiality, the rhythm of the seasons in the job, the importance of morality, and the uses of ignorance and superficiality. (Author/IRT)

Explores the implication for human service organizations when concepts drawn from organization technology, control theory, and human system design are integrated in computer simulation models that can test alternative management decisions, policies, and organization structures prior to implementation. (Author/IRT)

Studies show that not only have women been highly capable administrators, but that experts, supervisors, and teachers have rated "feminine" types of behaviors as more effective for principals than "masculine" behaviors. (Author/IRT)

Numerous value judgments are embedded in the standards used to evaluate whether a school finance system has become more or less equitable over time. Data from 20 states are analyzed to demonstrate that alternative value judgments affect the measurement of a state's movement toward or away from equity. (Author/IRT)

Presents and comments on the major criticisms of organizational theory that pertain to educational administration. Draws implications for research and theory building in educational administration. (Author/IRT)

Equity in community college finance can be considered in terms of equity among either community colleges, their students, or all public postsecondary institutions. Within each of these, one can examine equity to either providers or recipients of funding. Fragmentary evidence allows no conclusions yet in this area. (Author/RW)

Harold D. Lasswell's concept of the decision seminar and its associated idea sets have been successfully applied to educational problems, desegregation cases, and research. Lasswell's idea sets include decision phase analysis, a social process model, five intellectual tasks, and eight value/institution categories. (RW)