Organizations or Communities? Changing the Metaphor Changes the Theory

Educational administration must develop an identity of its own The basic theories and root metaphors of the field center on organization, whose assumptions include legitimacy, hierarchy, and self-interest. This conceptualization makes great demands on management and leadership for teachers and principals. Families, communities, and friendship networks are examples of collections of people which are different from those of organization. If educational administration were to understand schools as communities, it would need to address new questions, such as different ties for connecting staff students, and families. Our understanding of authority and leadership would also shift; in communities the sources of authority for leadership are embedded in shared ideas. Finally, a new theory of school as community and new conceptions of administration are preferable to theoretical pluralism.