UNIVERSITY OF DAR ES SALAAM

SCHOOL OF EDUCATION

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATIONS,

MANAGEMENT AND LIFELONG LEARNING
PROGRAMME : MASTERS OF EDUCATIONAL MANAGEMENT AND
ADMINISTRATION (MEMA, REGULAR)
COURSE TITLE: MANAGEMENT OF EDUCATION SYSTEM AND INSTITUTION
COURSE CODE: EA 627
TYPE OF ASSIGNMENT: INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT
COURSE INSTRUCTOR: DR. AHADI ANANIA
NAME OF STUDENT : TADAYO. O . ANANIA
REGISTRATION NUMBER: 2022-06-01467
ASSIGNMENT : BOOK CRITIQUE

Question

1.Write a Book Critique

Book

Bush, T(2011) Theories of Educational Leadership and Management. London. SAGE

Publications.

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 Tadayo. O. Anania

Book Critique

Theories of educational leadership and management

Bibliographical entry

Bush,Tony. Theories of Educational Leadership and Management. London: SAGE Publications,

2011

Author Information

Tony Bush is a Professor of Educational Leadership at the University of Warwick and previously

held similar posts at the Universities of Leicester, Reading, and Lincoln. He is also visiting

Professor at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. He is a Vice President of the

British Educational Leadership, Management and Administration Society (BELMAS) and was

presented with the society’s distinguished service award in 2008. He is also a Board Member of

the commonwealth council for Educational Administration and Management (CCEAM) and was

appointed as a CCEAM fellow in 2008. He has published extensively on several aspects of

educational leadership and management and has been editor of the leading since 2002. His most

recent book are Leading and Managing People in Education (with David and Middlewood),

Leadership and Management Development in Education, and The Principles Educational

Leadership and Management (with Les Bell and David Middlewood)

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Content Summary

The book is about educational leadership and management model in the education field. Chapter

one of the book focus is in the concept of management rather than leadership. Change is linked

with leadership and management is connected with maintenance (pg 8). Chapter two shows

models of educational leadership and management which are formal, collegial, political,

subjective, ambiguous, and cultural. Models are analyzed according to criteria which are the

level of agreement about the goals of the institution, and the meaning and validity of

organizational structures. Chapter three is about formal models of various types which are

structural, system, bureaucratic, rational, and hierarchical models. Chapter four reveals Collegial

models as are found in higher education, secondary and primary schools. Collegial models have

goals that help the teacher to link their work to school objectives. Has its organizational structure

which is lateral or horizontal making participants equal rights in determining policy and

influencing decisions (pg 80). Chapter five shows the political model it has features that focus on

group activity rather than the institution as a whole, and are concerned with interests and interest

groups. Chapter six reveals about subjective models it has central features as it focuses on the

beliefs and perceptions of individual members of an organization rather than the institutional

level or interest group and is concerned with the meanings placed on events by people within

organizations. Chapter seven reveals about Ambiguity models have its feature like lack of clarity

about the goals of the organization. Its goal is to promote policies based on existing objectives

(pg 158). Chapter eight shows the cultural models have their central features which focus on the

values and beliefs of members organization (pg 174). Cultural models goals serve to reinforce

the values and beliefs of the organization (pg 179). Chapter nine shows in comparison of the

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management models based on the goals and organizational structure through use of comparative

analysis

Evaluation

In Book Critique the author has achieved his intended purpose, to inform the readers by showing

the model applicable to educational leadership and management and providing knowledge about

the concept of education and leadership. The main theme is appropriate models to be used in an

educational institution that is convincing help to provide information to the educational

institution and are useful to educational leaders like educational managers and head teachers.

The author has described, the author uses the idea of models and ways to conduct educational

leadership (pg 36) . The arguments of the book are logical this is because the author argues ideas

with references from other authors. The author uses the evidence of models in education to his

main theme (pg 36). The author concludes that one model is not enough to suit the organization

because the different situation that arises requires the use of a variety of models to solve the

problem.

The most significant part of the book is the use of instructional leadership whereby leaders learn

about the concepts of leadership. The book contains historical traits, as the author shows the

chronology of educational leadership and management which began in the United States in early

this century (pg 10). The book teaches us about having the skills of educational leadership and

management with an emphasis use of the models in education

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Critique

The author describes the concept of educational leadership into three dimensions; Leadership as

an influence, Leadership and Values, Leadership and vision. In Leadership and Vision, this

vision introduced by a leader can only be implemented when the top leader is around the office

due to the result of follow-up conducted by educational leaders like managers. After the absence

of an educational leader, the vision disappears in the mind of the workers like teachers. Since

Educational leaders like managers have introduced the vision and used the authority to

implement it, due to their absence the workers are not likely to implement it because of the

vision discovered by them. Educational leaders like managers must provide room for workers

like teachers to have a vision in the education institution that enables workers to implement the

vision whole heartily because the vision has been discovered by them (pg 7).

Also, formal models are of different types like structural, system, bureaucratic, rational, and

hierarchical models. Not all the models seem to be relevant and applicable in schools. Due to the

ignorance of the educational leaders, the managers choose a particular type of model without

understanding the suitability of the model for the school. As the author describes the model and

elaborates on its suitability to the school with its criteria like the type of school if it is a private or

public school.

The author’s idea in the collegial model is among some members of the organization should

share power and decision-making. As this is likely to bring conflict in the area of decision-

making if the ideas shared by workers in the organization do not rely upon the ideas of the

leader. The best way to avoid conflict is for workers like the teacher to introduce ideas that go

hand in hand with the leader’s vision. Distributed leadership should not be much applicable in

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schools as some areas require close follow-up and supervision which can mainly be performed

by educational managers.

As Participative leadership mostly to be used by workers like teachers and educational managers

who highly like to cooperate with each other through the exchange of ideas. In Political model is

mainly emphasized the interest groups in the school like educational managers and head teachers

and gives little attention to the institutional level. The model has to look generally at the

institutional level and provide inputs on how to develop the school like providing funds to the

school for construction activities and giving the school advice on better ways to bring

development.

In Subjective models, the focus is mainly placed on individual units rather than organization it

results give a huge load to educational leaders like Head teachers because of leaders in the

educational field. There is an important need to look at school as an organization unit this helps

to deal with all workers in the school equally. Ambiguity models show objectives of the

institution not being clear and are not properly understood (pg 148).

This model is not to be acceptable in an educational institution because the objective of a school

must be clear so that the worker is able to meet the goals set by the organization. As models used

has to provide room for objectives to be set. The cultural model is good in an educational

organization as it shows the existing symbols in the society through means of values, beliefs, and

norms. However negative culture from globalization should not enter in education is likely to

degrade the values of the students and teachers in the educational organization. Also, the

education organization should have a clear mission stating its culture with clarity to avoid

acquiring negative culture (pg 179).

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Also, the cultural model mainly focuses on the symbols such as rituals and ceremonies as much

emphasis is placed on the symbols, resulting in losing direction focus on others in education such

as academic area. Only little focus is to be placed in order to avoid loss of concentration in other

areas (pg 187). The six management models are important at educational institutions, however

for the model to be used require being suitable to educational institution based on the type of

leadership, and the nature of the environment.

Strengths of Book

The strengths of the book the author show that leadership and management are needed to be

given equal emphasis in schools and colleges in order to bring the desired results (pg 9). This is

important because with the skills of a leader there is a high influence on others in performing a

particular task making other workers become more motivated to accomplish their tasks because

they are inspired by the leader.

As management deals with maintenance by making sure the education that the school provides to

the student is met accordingly. Also, teachers are well paid their salary and problems are solved

right on time. Also, the six models of educational management which are formal, collegial,

political, subjective, ambiguous and cultural are important and relevant to education as provide

complete ideas on better ways to conduct leadership and management in the school which enable

educational managers to manage the educational institution (pg 33).

School and college structures are mainly shown as vertical and hierarchical (pg 43). It is

important for the school and college structure to be vertical and hierarchical because this shows

the leadership being top-down workers showing to be accountable to the higher power resulting

the workers like a teacher to be committed to doing their work effectively like teaching and

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having successful results which result to high academic performance. Collegial models assume

that professionals also have a right to share a wider decision-making process (pg 74).

It is very important for the professional to be given a chance to a wider decision-making process,

inputs are likely to be contributed which results in the success of the educational institution

because their knowledge and well experience in the field, workers are to be listened to by

educational leaders in order to contribute achievement in the educational institution. The political

model mainly deals with interest and interest groups (pg 102). Political models in the institution

mainly show the individual as the educational leader having the values, goals, and desires which

are to be placed into the institution which uplifts the institution positively.

Subjective models concentrate on the beliefs and perceptions of individual members of

organizations rather than the institutional level or interest groups (pg 128). This is important

because it helps to improve the educational institution as the educational leader is likely to

collect the positive perception and beliefs of the individuals which are likely to be used

development of educational institutions like solving the problems that arise in the institution of

education.

Ambiguity organizational structure shows the institution classifying responsibilities into decision

areas which are then allocated to different bodies or individuals (pg 159). This is important as the

model shows the way formal structure influences the processes of activity to be conducted in the

educational institution. This helps in the distribution of decision areas according to the duties as

the academic teacher’s responsibility is different from the deputy academic teachers.

This helps the organization achieve its desired results as responsibilities are divided into different

areas in the school. One element that increases interest in school and college management is

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culture (pg 171). This is important because culture contains values, interests, norms and conduct.

For an educational organization to highly develop there is a high need of considering the culture.

Through culture, values are established in the school. Pupils are likely to be well-behaved and

disciplined due to the culture that schools have which helps in shaping the behaviour of the

student. Also, it influences the teacher to become more committed. There is a need for an

educational organization to maintain good culture. The management model compared to the

collegial model is impressive as it influences the teachers to practice decision-making (193). This

is important because teachers have a right to participate in decision-making because their skills

and knowledge result in high improvement of an educational institution. Each Teacher may have

different skills like critical thinking and problems solving skills but the skills combined helps to

develop the education institution in one way or another.

Weakness of the book

The author did not give recommendations for the models, different models were explained as

Formal, Collegial, Political, Subjective, Ambiguity and Cultural models with their limitations but

without recommendation. It is important to provide recommendations or suggestions after the

limitations of the models this helps the educational managers to apply better-suggested ideas

when coming into contact with the limitations.

Another thing is the author has mentioned only a few contributors to management theory in the

chronology of educational leadership and management. It is important for the author to mention

many contributors as possible because have also played a role in the formation of the

management theory.

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Also, the author has provided one distinction between educational leadership and management,

however, the distinction is not enough, he could have provided several distinctions between

educational leadership and management which helps in acquiring enough knowledge of the two

terminologies helping in the understanding of the subject matter.

Recommendation

The book should be read by different educational leaders like Headteachers and Managers. This

helps in the enrichment of their knowledge about educational leadership and management. Also,

it provides knowledge and skills on better ways to manage the school and practice leadership

skills.

Conclusion

In summary, the study was conducted with good follow-up of steps to achieving the intended

results. The author is to consider writing the recommendation of the models after the limitations.

This is important as helps the educational leaders on better ways to overcome the limitations of

the models during the application. Also, the author avoids using vocabulary in order to enable

readers

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References

Badat, S (1995) ‘Educational politics in the transitional period’, Comparative Education, 31(2):

141-59.

Brown, M., Boyle, B, and Boyle, T (1999) ‘Commonalities between perception and practice in

models of school decision- making in secondary schools’, School Leadership and

Management, 19(3): 319-30.

Glatter, R (1997) ‘Context and Capability in educational management’, Educational

Management and Administration, 25(2): 181-92

Hughes, M. (1985)‘Theory and Practice in educational management’, in M. Hughes, P. Ribbins

and H. Thomas (eds), Managing Education: The System and the Institution, London:

Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Leithwood, K., Jantzi, D. and Steinbach, R. (1999) Changing Leadership for Changing Times,

Buckingham: Open University Press.

March, J. G. and Olsen, J. P (1976) ‘Organisational choice under ambiguity’, in J.G. March and

J.P. Olsen (eds), Ambiguity and Choice in Organisations, Bergen: Universitetsforlaget.

Prosser, J. (ed.) (1999) School Culture, London: Paul Chapman Publishing.

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