SCHOOL ORGANIZATION IN A CHANGING SOCIETY
| Published date | 01 February 1975 |
| Pages | 98-106 |
| Date | 01 February 1975 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb009738 |
| Author | E.H. NEWTON |
| Subject Matter | Education |
THE JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION
VOLUME XIII, NUMBER 2 OCTOBER, 1975
SCHOOL ORGANIZATION IN A CHANGING SOCIETY1
E.H. NEWTON
This paper discusses the formal organization of the school in order to arrive at ways in
which schools might be organized for the fuller development of children. Accepting that the
key figure in school organization is the principal who must therefore provide proper
leadership, it examines some leaderships styles and indicates that the participative principal
is generally to be preferred. School children's perception of various aspects of school
organization—rules, discipline and punishment, staff-pupil relationships—is then discus-
sed. A humanistic organization is then put forward with suggestions as to its implementa-
tion.
Schools usually have one thing in common—they are institutions of today run
on the principles of yesterday.2
The students feel they do not belong to the School. There is no sense of belong-
ing created by the teachers.3
I think it is fundamental that we accept the spirit and attempt to incorporate the
democratic way of life into the school. How is this going to be done?...by having
students government in a variety of
ways.
Students must be put in a position to
exercise authority. Students must be put in a position to participate in for-
mulating policies.4
The first two quotations from students—one in England, the other in
Trinidad—express quite clearly views of the school that are today held by
a large and constantly increasing number of students. Schools are seen by
students as outdated in their organization, in their rules and general ap-
proach; their punishments are seen as harsh, degrading and ineffective and
these in turn lead to feelings of alienation, to apathy on the part of some,
to vandalism and aggressive behaviour in others. The light at the end of the
tunnel—a long tunnel—can be glimpsed in the view expressed in the third
quotation by a principal at the Chaguaramas Conference in 1971.
It is very encouraging to read such views from a principal, for it is the
principal, who, in the main, sets the tone of the school and determines its
organization, its rules, its goals. The principal is the key figure in the
school and the type of leadership he provides is of vital importance.
Three basic types of leadership or managerial styles have been iden-
tified. Applied to schools these three styles give us the authoritarian
(autocratic) principal, the permissive (laissez faire) principal and the par-
E.H. NEWTON is Lecturer in the School of Education, University of West Indies, St.
Augustine, Trinidad. He has had extensive teaching experience in the United Kingdom, Bar-
bados and Tobago. Mr. Newton has also lectured at the James Graham College of Education
at Leeds.
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