The study's primary purpose was, through the recorded
observations of a Regional Education Officer (REO) working in Catholic
primary schools over eighteen months, to draw out implications for local
and central administrators for the maintenance and improvement of the
schools' quality. Of particular interest was the question that since the
schools were Catholic schools, would or should this make any
significant difference to these implications. A secondary purpose of the
study was the clarification and articulation for myself of what the main
elements of the REO role might best be in practice.
Analysis of diary entries and relevant Catholic Education Office
documents was based on the writer's fundamental assumption that the
merits of educational administrative decisions and actions should be
judged in relation to the benefit these are to teachers and their students.
The main conclusions of the study were:
i) that the recognition by administrators of the special qualities of
the personal and interpersonal relationships existing in schools would
assist administrators in maintaining and developing the schools'
quality;
ii) that the religious faith aspect of the ideals of a Catholic school
adds a deeper dimension to the special qualities of the personal and
interpersonal relationships which are common to schools;
iii) that such are the demands by staffs of schools for support and
assistance, that the only ones who can realistically meet the bulk of such
demands are staffs themselves, supporting and assisting each other
through some form of regular collegial system;
iv) that schools are more non-rational than rational
organizations, and hence an emphasis on bureaucratic administrative
processes will be detrimental to schools' effectiveness.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/218890 |
| Date | January 1990 |
| Creators | Doolan, T. J., n/a |
| Publisher | University of Canberra. Education |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | ), Copyright T. J. Doolan |
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