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Given the context of accountability-driven policy environments, research has shown that school leaders perceive bureaucratic rules and protocols in negative ways, but they also utilize organizational structures and routines to lead changes. To better understand both enabling and hindering mechanisms of bureaucracy in schools, this study explores how Korean school principals understand and perceive bureaucratic structures using a lens of ambivalence. The authors draw on Weber's theory of bureaucracy, with a particular focus on the paradoxical aspect of bureaucracy that might be experienced by individuals within the system.

This study analyzed qualitative data collected from 26 in-depth interviews with 10 Korean school principals between 2013 and 2015. The authors used the multiple cycles of coding to explore patterns and themes that emerged from the participants' responses.

The analysis of this study showed that the participants' ambivalent responses toward bureaucracy were particularly salient in three areas where formal organizational structures were changing through policy initiatives: teacher evaluation, electronic approval system and school-based management promoting decentralized decision making. The study participants reflected on how such changes can enable and/or hinder schools to achieve organizational goals and collective values, from the viewpoints of multiple aspects, which led to their ambivalent responses to bureacratic structures in school settings.

This study contributes to the understanding of school organizations by revisiting Weber's theory of bureaucracy in school settings. Using the lens of ambivalence enabled us to reconcile school principals' contradictory perceptions toward bureaucracy, which complicates analyses of tensions and paradoxical responses found in leadership practices within school systems.

This paper aims to discuss the successful fabrication of customized tubular scaffolds for tracheal tissue engineering with a novel route using solvent-based extrusion 3D printing.

The manufacturing approach involved extrusion of polymeric ink over a rotating predefined pattern to construct customized tubular structure of polycaprolactone (PCL) and polyurethane (PU). Dimensional deviation in thickness of scaffolds were calculated for various layer thicknesses of 3D printing. Physical and chemical properties of scaffolds were investigated by scanning electron microscope (SEM), contact angle measurement, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Mechanical characterizations were performed, and the results were compared to the reported properties of human native trachea from previous reports. Additionally, in vitro cytotoxicity of the fabricated scaffolds was studied in terms of cell proliferation, cell adhesion and hemagglutination assay.

The developed fabrication route was flexible and accurate by printing customized tubular scaffolds of various scales. Physiochemical results showed good miscibility of PCL/PU blend, and decrease in crystalline nature of blend with the addition of PU. Preliminary mechanical assessments illustrated comparable mechanical properties with the native human trachea. Longitudinal compression test reported outstanding strength and flexibility to maintain an unobstructed lumen, necessary for the patency. Furthermore, the scaffolds were found to be biocompatible to promote cell adhesion and proliferation from the in vitro cytotoxicity results.

The attempt can potentially meet the demand for flexible tubular scaffolds that ease the concerns such as availability of suitable organ donors.

3D printing over accurate predefined templates to fabricate customized grafts gives novelty to the present method. Various customized scaffolds were compared with conventional cylindrical scaffold in terms of flexibility.