Topic 3 School as a Bureaucracy

Have you ever come across situations that annoyed you due to ‘red tape’ in public administration. When you need attention and help from certain public sector, you were passed to various officers to get things done. Do you know why this happens? In this topic, we will try to explore the concept and elements of bureaucracy authority and the application of Weber’s model of bureaucracy and its implications on school as a bureaucratic organisation.

3.1 School as a Bureaucracy

Bureaucracy is a rational, efficient way of completing tasks and rewarding individuals based on their contributions. However, it can also represent an impersonal, inefficient, cumbersome organization unresponsive to human needs, as you may have experienced.

By dividing organizations into formal and informal parts, we can understand better the working bureaucracy and the way it relates to school. Although we may complain, bureaucracy serves a vital function in our society. Any system based on other than selection and promotion based on merit will create unfairness and discrimination.

A note of caution is necessary in discussing schools as bureaucracies, because schools are unique organizations. Schools are distinctive because they are expected to transmit values, ideals, and shared knowledge; as well as to foster individual’s cognitive and emotional growth as a wholesome person. Organizationally, schools are divided into classrooms, the day into periods, and students into groups by grades and performance in examinations.

3.2 Characteristics of Bureaucracy

The bureaucratic form of organization was introduced in Europe because it was believed to be the most efficient and rational form for organizations with goals of high productivity and efficiency.

Max Weber, (1947) discussed the elements that make up a bureaucratic organization. Study the table below to understand the elements or characteristics of bureaucracy:






Try to analyse the elements of bureaucracy at school level. Relate to your observation and experiences at school to understand the bureaucracy at school. Elaborate by giving examples

3.3 Problems in Educational Bureaucracies

When we attempt to place some people in right categories to maximize efficiency in an organisation, there will be some who do not fit into the categories. Another problem of bureaucracy is that its own structure may lead to school to experience difficulties. Here are the expected problems:

• Huge enrolments with test scores, rather than in-depth knowledge of students’ family, background ,problems ,motivation, and other personal characteristics, the major criteria for screening and placement of students which determines their future
• Because relationships are expected to be impersonal, students, particularly the disadvantaged, are unable to get the counselling support, or the exposure to positive role models and the need to develop a positive self-image.
• Official rules tend to overcome the behaviour of school personnel and are difficult to circumvent when problems arise
• Teachers and students often feel powerless to change school conditions and so become apathetic as regards to solving problems
• Teachers as administrators can develop bureaucratic personalities, thus becoming insecure, as overly protective of their jobs, narrowly specialized less concerned with teaching, and inflexible in their daily routine.

For students who conform to bureaucratic expectations, life in school is most rewarding. For many, bureaucracy is confusing and difficult to understand. Their negative feelings towards bureaucracy become obvious as the system gets larger. They are caught up in the rules and regulations and being treated as numbers. A teacher teaching thirty or more students with an average of six periods per day, is likely not to recognize an individual students' problem or allocate time and energy to deal with it.

Various solutions to overcome the impersonal bureaucracy have been proposed; such as decentralization of decision making, curricular change, personalizing instruction and having students to get involved in community settings.

In what way, do you think, that a bureaucratic model is useful to schools? And in what ways the model will not be functional. Take your school as an example.

That’s all for now. I hope that you have had a better understanding of the bureaucracy its implication in school setting. We shall proceed to the next topic in a moment.

3.4 Summary

This topic deal with the school and its role in the bureaucratic organization. The concepts and elements of bureaucracy have been discussed. Here are some of the main ideas put forth :

• Bureaucracy is a rational and efficient way of completing tasks and rewarding individuals based on their contributions.
• The main elements of a bureaucratic organization comprise of division of labour, administrative hierarchy, specific rules of procedure , formalized and effective neutral role relationships, rationality of total organization and positions held by individuals in the organization.
• In any bureaucratic organization like the school, there will be expected problems, for example huge enrolment, lack of autonomy among teachers and bureaucratic personalities.

Basic Reading Text:

Ballantine, J.H. (2001). The Sociology of Education. A Systematic Analysis. 5th Edition. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall.