The Impact of Politics in Local Education: Navigating White Water

Today, administrators must assume a different mindset if public schools are to remain viable and functional. Changing populations resulting in heterogeneous communities, the diversity of community values, and the finite resources available to meet the infinite desires of a demanding constituency have created the necessity for political acumen on the part of local educational leaders. The primary reason for the upheaval occurring in schools today is not that the instructional element is being neglected, but that the building-level administrators have a woeful lack of proficiency in managing politics that impact school. This book gives administrators a better grasp of educational politics at the campus level as the school interacts with the community in which it is embedded. Through theory, application, and personal reflection, this book will show administrators how to "read" the political climate of a community, how to make meaning from the information, and how to proactively manage political issues in such a way that a stable school environment can be maintained. This book contains the following eighteen chapters: (1) The Micropolitics of Education: Theory and Praxis; (2) The Theoretical Construct: Political Indicators of School-Community Interactions; (3) The Case Study-Winfield High School: The Beginning; (4) The Principal's Reflection; (5) Resources and Results; (6) What Goes In and What Comes Out; (7) The Principal's Reflection; (8) The Perils of a Closed Decision-Making System; (9) Storm Clouds Gather Over Winfield High School; (10) The Principal's Reflection; (11) The Four Facets of Politics; (12) Turbulent Fields: Winfield High School Loses Stability; (13) The Principal's Reflection; (14) Conflict as a Strategic Maneuver; (15) The Kraken Is Released; (16) The Principal's Reflection; (17) Dissatisfaction Theory Concluded; and (18) The Principal's Final Reflection: Lessons Learned. This book concludes with an epilogue, Maggie Alexander Today. [This book was written with the assistance of Tom Burris.]