Corporate Culture, Schooling, and Educational Administration

The author argues that ideological forms of organizational/managerial control that are designed primarily to serve the interests of elites are prevalent in schools as well as in corporations. An important part of control ideologies is their defining of alternative or oppositional cultures as "irrational. " Schools, because they are the meeting places for those in and those out of power, are forced to develop their own very complex cultures, which are also seen by those in power as "irrational. " With reference to some descriptive studies the author illustrates both the complexity of school cultures and the increased difficulties they incur because they are defined as illegitimate by ruling elites.