Volume 17 Issue 1

Planning for Technology Integration: Is the Agenda Overrated or Underappreciated?

By: Amiee Howley and Craig Howley

ABSTRACT: Review of relevant literature and findings from an evaluation of one school’s technology integration project raise troubling questions about the place of instructional technology in US schools. Major arguments supporting technology integration are varied, and some of them rest on fundamentally incompatible premises. But despite these arguments, technology integration in general has been neither thoroughgoing nor instructionally effective. Turning first to the relevant literature, this study identifies researchers’ explanations for inadequate technology integration in US schools. Then it examines these explanations in light of data generated through the evaluation of one rural school’s project to integrate computer-based technologies into instruction in core academic subjects. Findings suggest that technical, ideological, cultural, and systemic circumstances—impediments also identified in the prior literature—did indeed compromise technology integration in the school project evaluated by these researchers.

A Communitarian Framework for Planning Educational Leadership Preparation Programs

By: Vincent Baxter

ABSTRACT: In response to the liberalization of the public school, many university-based principal preparation programs now emphasize a curriculum focused on the development of school leaders as data-driven business managers rather than as public servants and community leaders. This paper will describe a theoretical framework for planning the preparation of public school leaders with an emphasis on a communitarian balance between the rights of the individual and an individual’s responsibilities to his/her community; between business supervisor and public servant; between management and leadership. The primary focus of this approach is to facilitate a learning experience that is multi-dimensional and diverse in content, membership, pedagogic process, and program administration.

Teacher Burnout and Organizational Citizenship Behavior in Turkish Elementary Schools

By: Cemil Yucel

ABSTRACT: Today’s organizations demand people who have the habit of working voluntarily without any need for supervision and control, who tolerate limited resources and negative circumstances, who refrain from being negative, who share expertise with others, and who quest for new developments for the wellbeing of the organization. Being a hard working, patient, altruistic, punctual, collaborative employee mostly depends on not developing a syndrome called burnout. Employee behaviors such as helping others (e.g. supportive actions to assist others and going beyond the job requirements), sportsmanship (e.g. tolerating the work conditions, refraining from complaining), civic virtue (e.g. active engagement in organizational development and improvement) are called Organizational Citizenship Behaviors (OCB) (Mackenzie, Podsakoff, & Praine, 1999). Such behaviors are critical for organizational effectiveness (George & Brief, 1992; Karambayya, 1990; Podsakoff and MacKenzie, 1997; Podsakoff, MacKenzie, and Aherne, 1997). Employees who exhibit these behaviors are those who have the dispositional personality characteristics such as agreeableness and conscientiousness (George & Brief, 1992; Konovsky & Organ, 1996). This study investigates whether there is a relationship between teacher burnout and OCB.

Evaluating the Legal Rights Support Program for Education in Egypt: A Case Study

By: Mahmoud Abbas Abdeen

ABSTRACT: The Legal Rights Support Program (LRSP) is a ten-week project funded by the National Council for Negro Women (NCNW). The project was implemented by AMIDEAST in collaboration with the Salama Moussa Organization (SMO) in the Spring 1999. Its main aims were: (a) to develop the skills, knowledge, and resources of 11 civil society organizations (CSOs), working in one of the provinces of Upper Egypt (Minya), (b) to qualify the CSOs to raise community awareness of children’s legal rights in the field of education, and (c) to increase and facilitate community access to its legal rights. In order to achieve these aims, three workshops were conducted on children’s rights for education, which were preceded by extensive preliminary work. The research methods adopted in this study were action research, and the descriptive, qualitative method. After analyzing various documents of the project, conducting field visits, interviewing all those in charge, and evaluating the project results and outputs, it was concluded that the project succeeded in attaining its aims with evaluations between good and very good. Nineteen evidences and two case studies were provided to justify the conclusion reached. In order to enhance the positive aspects of the project and redress any deficiencies, some recommendations for future plans were provided.