Democracy and Bureaucracy: Tensions in Public Schooling

First published in 1990, Democracy and Bureaucracy examines the tensions associated with the reorganization of public education in Australia. Contributors explore these tensions through a variety of related antimonies: bureaucracy and democracy, control and autonomy, centralism and devolution. The thesis generally propounded in this book is that democratic structures, participation and school-based decision-making are all elements of school improvement which enable a bureaucracy to be more responsive, less authoritarian, and in control only over the macro issues of policy, thereby leaving to schools the maximum degree of freedom possible for their own determination of principles, policies and practices. This book will be of interest to students of education, pedagogy, public policy and public administration.