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A comparative study of educational administrative theory in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the Federal Republic of Germany, and the United States of America
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STUDIES IN COMPARATIVE COMMUNISM
The chief conclusion of this study is that, while the experiments offer promising solutions to very serious secial problems, the Soviet leadership has not pushed very hard to have them adopted on a broad scale. The experiments have not had a major effect yet on Soviet labor policy, although they have shaped policy debates in this area.
A Comparative Study of Educational Administrative Theory in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the Federal Republic of Germany, and the United States of America,
STUMPF, Hannelore Marianne,
Northern Arizona Univ., 1981. The purpose of this study was to examine and compare the historical and political development in the U.S.S.R., the Federal Republic of Germany, and the United States of America of their respective educational systems including the development of educational administrative theory. The functional role of the superintendent and the principal in each nation was studied as a direct reflection of their specific theoretical approach to school administration. The questions investigated were: What have been the characteristic administrative theories from 1918 to the present in the U.S.S.R., the F.R.G. and the U.S.? What have been the responsibilities and authority of the superintendents and principals, or their respective counterparts, in the countries under study? What administrative procedures are dominant in the three countries? The study, a comparative one, utilized approximately 450 books, government pamphlets, periodicals, newspapers, and selected unpublished materials from the three nations. The study concluded that Soviet administrative theory is essentially monocratic, bureaucratic, and autocratic, since the Communist Party rigidly defines, delegates, supervises, adjudicates, and imposes sanction. The theoretical purpose of Soviet education is to provide the means of producing faithful servants to the state. Soviet schools exist for two purposes: first, the elimination of illiteracy, and second, the creation of an educational structure that will respond to political direction through the precess of ideological teaching and the preparation for productive labor. This trend has not changed since 1918. In regard to the individual administration of the three nations, Soviet superintendents and principals are required to follow explicitly the rigid, politically prescribed and controlled administrative procedures. In the F.R.G., a school principal is elected to his post from among the teaching staff without further training in educational administrative methods or procedures. Pedagogy and the supervision thereof in the Federal Republic exist, therefore, in the duties of the superintendent, who comes from a background of law and whose appointment is political. A change from authoritarian administrative approaches toward demecratic leadership is presently discernible in the German school system. Administrative theory and leadership in the United States, meanwhile, is governed by a belief in individualism, equality, and human perfectability. It is the only country of the three that espouses these principles and that has developed a comprehensive theory of educational administration.
STUDIES IN COMPARATIVE COMMUNISM
The chief conclusion of this study is that, while the experiments offer promising solutions to very serious secial problems, the Soviet leadership has not pushed very hard to have them adopted on a broad scale. The experiments have not had a major effect yet on Soviet labor policy, although they have shaped policy debates in this area.
A Comparative Study of Educational Administrative Theory in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the Federal Republic of Germany, and the United States of America,
STUMPF, Hannelore Marianne,
Northern Arizona Univ., 1981. The purpose of this study was to examine and compare the historical and political development in the U.S.S.R., the Federal Republic of Germany, and the United States of America of their respective educational systems including the development of educational administrative theory. The functional role of the superintendent and the principal in each nation was studied as a direct reflection of their specific theoretical approach to school administration. The questions investigated were: What have been the characteristic administrative theories from 1918 to the present in the U.S.S.R., the F.R.G. and the U.S.? What have been the responsibilities and authority of the superintendents and principals, or their respective counterparts, in the countries under study? What administrative procedures are dominant in the three countries? The study, a comparative one, utilized approximately 450 books, government pamphlets, periodicals, newspapers, and selected unpublished materials from the three nations. The study concluded that Soviet administrative theory is essentially monocratic, bureaucratic, and autocratic, since the Communist Party rigidly defines, delegates, supervises, adjudicates, and imposes sanction. The theoretical purpose of Soviet education is to provide the means of producing faithful servants to the state. Soviet schools exist for two purposes: first, the elimination of illiteracy, and second, the creation of an educational structure that will respond to political direction through the precess of ideological teaching and the preparation for productive labor. This trend has not changed since 1918. In regard to the individual administration of the three nations, Soviet superintendents and principals are required to follow explicitly the rigid, politically prescribed and controlled administrative procedures. In the F.R.G., a school principal is elected to his post from among the teaching staff without further training in educational administrative methods or procedures. Pedagogy and the supervision thereof in the Federal Republic exist, therefore, in the duties of the superintendent, who comes from a background of law and whose appointment is political. A change from authoritarian administrative approaches toward demecratic leadership is presently discernible in the German school system. Administrative theory and leadership in the United States, meanwhile, is governed by a belief in individualism, equality, and human perfectability. It is the only country of the three that espouses these principles and that has developed a comprehensive theory of educational administration.