Educational Groups -- a Literature

Educational Groups -- a Literature Review

Hambright, Grany & Thomas Diamantes. (2004) "Definitions, benefits, and barriers of K-12 educational strategic planning." Journal of Instructional Psychology. Sept 2004. Retrieved 1 Oct 2006 at http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FCG/is_3_31/ai_n6332794/pg

Strategic planning and the use of work teams is now an accepted part of managerial practice in contemporary industry. However, are these principles applicable to an elementary school setting? In their article "Definitions, benefits, and barriers of K-12 educational strategic planning," Grant Hambright and Thomas Diamantes conduct a comprehensive literature review of current writing and research on the subject. "Strategic planning is considered to be a 'grass roots' or 'bottom-up' approach, where planning is accomplished with input from a variety of organizational constituents or stakeholders, as opposed to the traditional 'top-down' planning typically employed and directed by central [single] office administrators." (Hambright & Diamantes citing Rieger, 1994). From their own literature review, the authors draw their conclusion that research and anecdotal evidence support the idea that participative forms of management and are superior to less involved forms of management, provided top management gives guidance from the organizational helm. Shared decision-making in educational leadership groups and site-based decision-making is key. (Hambright & Diamantes, 2004, p.1)

Using educational groups effectively is one of the strenghts of participative management: "By using information about emerging trends and developments gleaned through a process of environmental scanning," another way of saying, the individual educational situation, "the [strategic planning process]... allows district planners to anticipate plausible alternative futures from which to derive appropriate strategic goals. These goals form both the district's collective 'visible' for the future and a basis for ongoing operational planning and management." (cited by Hambright & Diamantes, 2001, p.3, Mecca & Adams, 1990, p. 16)

This article would be highly informative for human services professionals to gain an understanding of the strengths of participative management, although it is somewhat lacking in specific details about implementation in a school setting. It may have behooved the authors to consult fewer sources, and examine the weaknesses as well as the strengths of the cited examples in greater detail and depth. Also, the authors do not really present the weaknesses of such managerial strategies. They merely assert the studies and the research's support of the technique's efficacy, based on the chronicled experience of the data. The article functions as an effective introduction to the philosophy of using educational groups to govern a school and the ideals of participative management using collective organizational input. The article touches upon some barriers, like institutional resistance, a lack of commitment to broach the initial difficulties of group or consensus governance, and a lack of funding, but does not give advice how to overcome these differences or evaluate their seriousness.

Bemak, Fred. (2005) "Reflections on multiculturalism, social justice, and empowerment groups for academic success: a critical discourse for contemporary schools."

Professional School Counseling, June 2005. Retrived 1 Oct 2006 at http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0KOC/is_5_8/ai_n14732792

Fred Bemak's article takes a different view of educational groups. Rather than focusing on professional managerial strategies to unite educators and administrators, Bernak stresses the need to create group bonds in school governance, administrating, and counseling between students and the professionals who serve these students. Students must share a "external locus of control" when constructing school relationships in a community, with adults as well as with other students. (Bemak, 2005, p.3) He gives special attention to the needs of disenfranchized populations. The need for consensus-building, moreover, should not eliminate the needs of the population. "School counselors regularly introduce structured exercises, ice breakers, and prepackaged 'guidance' lessons that define the content and process about what should be talked about and how group members should communicate. Many of these activities commonly focus on happy and positive feelings and thoughts, at the expense of allowing an examination of more painful issues. This is especially problematic for disenfranchised and failing students, who, through this type of structure, receive direct and indirect messages from the group structure to not deal with the depths of their pain, anger, frustration, sadness, hurt, anxiety, or fear." (Bemak, 2005, p.1)

The need for a culturally diverse approach must not be lost, either in the approach of education of counselors and educators, despite the need to build teams and effective groups. Controversially, Bemak entertains the suggestion that an ethnic and gender match between students and guidance counselors might be a needed additional support for students from at-risk groups, although he finally rejects the idea as impractical. (Bemak, 2005, p.5) the article is provoking and challenging to accepted norms, suggesting that the need to build a school community must not conceal individual differences and special needs of students, and that the need for harmony must not cloud adminstrator's eyes to the reality of the student's home and social envionments. Any human resource professional should read this article and find interest in its unapologetic defense of the need to acknowlege the problems of creating a community filled with differences, although Bernak could have included more examples of effective use of groups that fostered the children most in need, whom are the primary preoccuation of his aricle.

Marzano, Robert Timothy Waters & Brian a. McNulty. (2005) School Leadership that Works. Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development, 2005.

Robert J. Marzano, Timothy Waters, and Brian a. McNulolty offer a comprehensive, step-by-step guide to implement a leadership program based upon faculty meetings, consultations with parents, and generating a more interactive environment between administrators and staff within a school. Situational leadership, or flexible to on-site attention student needs is deemed key, as well as communication between faculty members. The authors strike a contrast between what they call first-order change or incremental change and second-order change which is a sudden, decisive step taken by the educational leadership. Although both forms of change are necessary, and first order change is inevitable, the authors stress the need for second-order, seismic changes to create better ways to monitoring and evaluating student success for quality, build a positive teaching culture based on communication and mentoring between faculty mentors and parent input, and to have a strong leader with clear ideals and beliefs. Constructing groups and meetings that foster and define such ideals are essential.