School Organization: Concepts, Areas, and Elements
ITEM 1: School Organization
1. Concept of School Organization
From an operational perspective, school organization refers to the study of the interrelationships between components within a school. Its objective is to optimize the performance of an Educational Project.
2. Concept of Educational Organization (EO) According to UNESCO
UNESCO’s concept of EO has two aspects:
- At the school system level, it aims to regroup and articulate various elements that contribute to the internal improvement of the system.
- At the center level, it involves methodically investigating the coherence in the operation of various elements to achieve institutional goals.
3. Purpose and Content of School Organization
School organization is becoming increasingly distinct within the field of education. It represents an organizational idea that goes beyond subject matter, encompassing the school and its global reality. This includes any facility or institution involved in educational activity, whether formal, non-formal, or informal. The formal object of school organization lies in the nature of knowledge itself, its field, and its purpose.
4. School and Educational Organization: Definition by Davis, Medina, and Garcia Rubio
“School Organization is a systematized set of rules and regulations, encompassing elements involved in teaching and the school’s directional core, unified towards a common goal.” While interdependent, teaching and educational organization are independent sciences. Teaching is more dynamic, focusing on teaching activities, while EO is more static, focusing on the elements and their arrangement. However, both serve the same educational purpose and are complementary. Teaching involves instructional activities, while EO ensures the optimal environment for educational development, addressing aspects like social climate, institutional culture, interactions, leadership, and conflict.
5. Areas of School Organization
- The education system at national, regional, district, or local levels.
- Educational authorities at different levels, aligned with the education system.
- Schools as complex organizations with educational purposes, driven by teaching actions, operating under rationality criteria, defining processes and standards, allocating functions, and establishing authority structures, shaping a unique situational climate and cultural environment.
6. Concepts Related to School Organization
- Educational Policy: Political aspects of education, encompassing the social orientation of education within the state’s macro-institutional framework (Constitution, General Laws, etc.). It influences the practical organization but not the theoretical or technological aspects.
- Educational Administration: The implementation of Educational Policy, aiming to realize socio-political expectations in education by ensuring compliance with laws and regulations.
- Planning and Monitoring Education: Maximizing the efficiency and effectiveness of resources for the operation of the school system. Planning involves decision-making, while supervision involves assessing and renewing decisions and their effects.
- Difference between EO and Educational Administration: Educational Administration operates at a macro level, while EO focuses on the specific school environment. EO is not subject to Educational Policy in the same way as Educational Administration.
- Educational Management and School: Set at the micro-institutional level, it’s one of the actions that follow from the act of organizing.
- Law School: Aims to achieve the state’s political objectives in education.
ITEM 3: The School as an Educational Institution
1. Approach to the Study of the School
The concept of education is fundamentally linked to the concept of the school or educational institution. The school originated and evolved based on educational needs. Education, initially a diffuse and context-dependent process of influencing people, involved the relationship between the individual and the socio-natural environment. Non-formal education was spontaneous and unsystematic in primitive societies. Over time, the increasing complexity of knowledge and the need for regulated and organized education led to formal education. This specialization resulted in the emergence of the school as a dedicated space for education, influenced by family and contextual factors.
2. The School as a Social Subsystem
Education is a system, a set of interrelated elements working together towards a common goal. It has a socio-cultural relationship:
- Education is a social reality and necessity.
- The socio-cultural context provides cultural content and values to education.
- Specific forms of socio-cultural influence shape education.
Within the education system, three levels are distinguished:
- Formal education system (administrative structure and academic degrees).
- Non-formal education (organized actions outside the formal system).
- Informal education (unsystematic, connected to daily routines).
3. New Conceptualization of the School
Lorenzo Delgado’s vision of the school:
- A result of complex historical processes, never neutral, benefiting some and disadvantaging others.
- A social construction, designed by social groups, reflecting power dynamics.
- A space with multiple functions, both explicit (educate, socialize) and hidden (reproduction of social classes).
Evolution of the School (Cisco and Uria, 1986):
- Family institution (Athenian and Roman schools).
- Religious institution (catechetical or Hebrew schools).
- State institution (public schools).
- Social institution (union, municipal schools).
- Result of a cultural movement (free institution of learning).
- Vocational training (La Salle vocational schools, Plato’s academy).
4. The School as a Hub of Educational Activity
The school is an organizational unit, the core of educational activity, driving educational projects aligned with social challenges. It mediates between students and their socio-cultural environment. Its purpose is to enhance individual training, adapting to the context, resources, and expectations of stakeholders.
5. Elements of the School
- Human: students, teachers, parents.
- Materials: equipment (furniture, teaching materials), space, economic resources.
- Functional: educational planning (PEC, SCCP, schedules, etc.).