AN EXPLORATION OF THE SUBCOMMUNITY POLITICS OF EDUCATION: FOUR COMPARATIVE CASE STUDIES

Abstract

Four comparative case studies of subcommunities within a single school district were conducted. For the purposes of this study each subcommunity was operationally defined by the attendance area of an elementary school. The purposes of the study were: (i) to develop analytically the concept of a subcommunity; (ii) to develop the concept of a subcommunity's political influence; (iii) to test the application of these concepts with data collected from four low income subcommunities; (iv) to analyze and explore the possible relationships of environmental and school characteristics on the political influence of subcommunities. As a result of this study some of the problems of operationally defining and measuring political influence became apparent. Nevertheless, the data did suggest that focusing on the subcommunity politics of education might be a fruitful approach for studying political processes within large urban school districts. In addition, a number of possible determinants of subcommunity political influence were identified.

Citation

CHU, M. (1975), "AN EXPLORATION OF THE SUBCOMMUNITY POLITICS OF EDUCATION: FOUR COMPARATIVE CASE STUDIES", Journal of Educational Administration, Vol. 13 No. 1, pp. 99-117. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb009725