Research into the School as an Organization. I: A Presentation and Discussion of Research Literature with a Bearing on the School as an Organization

Berg, G. 1982. Research into the School as an Organization. I: A Presentation and Discussion of Research Literature with a Bearing on the School as an Organization. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research 26, 95‐117. Only to a limited extent has the school as an organization been the subject of any really systematic research, whether on the part of educationalists, sociologists or general organizational theorists. In this article a number of research projects focusing on the school as an organization are described and discussed. Previous research in this field has been either functionalist or structuralist in approach. Nevertheless, certain concepts are common to the analyses of all the researchers referred to here: all describe the school as an organization in terms of professionalism and bureaucracy. We would add that the school can also be described as a coercive organization.