Democratic Dilemmas: Joint Work, Education Politics, and Community

by Marsh, Julie A.

• ISBN13: 9780791471289
• ISBN10: 0791471284
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-05-10
• Publisher: State Univ of New York Pr

Summary

Drawing on three years of field research and extensive theoretical and empirical literature, Democratic Dilemmas chronicles the day-to-day efforts of educators and laypersons working together to advance student learning in two California school districts. Julie A. Marsh reveals how power, values, organizational climates, and trust played key roles in these two districts achieving vastly different results. In one district, parents, citizens, teachers, and administrators effectively developed and implemented districtwide improvement strategies; in the other, community and district leaders unsuccessfully attempted to improve systemwide accountability through dialogue. The book highlights the inherent tensions of deliberative democracy, competing notions of representation, limitations of current conceptions of educational accountability, and the foundational importance of trust to democracy and education reform. It further provides a framework for improving community-educator collaboration and lessons for policy and practice. Book jacket.

Author Biography

Julie A. Marsh is Policy Researcher at the RAND Corporation

Table of Contents

List of Figures and Tables	p. xi
Acknowledgments	p. xiii
Introduction	p. 1
Overview of Two District Cases: Unlocking a Puzzle
Historical Context of School-Community Connections
Grounding the Study: A Lens for Understanding the Two Cases
Study Background and Methods
Reflections on and Implications of the Research
Chapter Outline
Setting the Stage	p. 17
State, Regional, and Local Context for Joint Work
Key Facets and Activities of Joint Work
Who Was at the Table
What Was on the Table: Vision and Purpose
How Participants Interacted and Made Decisions
What Was Achieved
Summing Up the Cases and Looking Ahead
Participation and Power	p. 59
Power and Its Many Faces
Participation Patterns and Biases
Explanations and Implications for Democratic Practice
Summing Up and Looking Ahead
Institutional Discord and Harmony	p. 79
Democratic Inclusion and Professional Autonomy
Market Perspectives and Democratic Inclusion
Conditions Affecting Institutional Relationships
Summing Up and Looking Ahead
The Democracy-Bureaucracy Face-off	p. 101
Organizational Forms and Democracy
Organizational Structure: Rigid versus Flexible
Organizational Culture: Controlling versus Learning
Leadership: Top-down versus Distributed
How Resources Affected Organizational Climate
Summing Up and Looking Ahead
Climates of Trust and Mistrust	p. 131
What Is Trust?
Institutional Trust
Interpersonal Trust
Foundations of Trust and Issues of Representation
Summing Up and Looking Ahead
Implications for Policy and Practice in an Era of Accountability	p. 157
Key Tensions and Dilemmas Revisited
Policy Implications: Accountability as Community Responsibility
Democratic and Educational Outcomes
Practical Lessons
Unresolved Dilemmas and Unanswered Questions
Methodology	p. 185
Mid Valley CAP Participants	p. 193
Highland Strategic Planning Team	p. 197
Notes	p. 201
References	p. 215
Index	p. 225
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