2.3 Towards the virtual k-12 educational organization: an emerging  (Page 2/11)

The legacy of bureaucratic education

In the last thirty years a major transformation has taken place in American education. What was expected of the K-12 educational organization in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries reached its zenith at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Until the twenty-first century American education was successful if some students graduated with rudimentary knowledge and skill as productive members of society. In the twenty-first century teaching, learning, and the educational system itself have been buffeted by forces that challenged the traditional bureaucratic arrangement of schools with tall administrative hierarchies, centralized decision-making, and tightly controlled structures. The model of American education based upon the industrial factory is undergoing a revolution based upon emerging technologies that redefine school organization as a virtual as well as a physical learning environment.

Research on organizational k-12 change

This school district was being shaped as an organization by the use of technology and software to form new structures that were transforming the traditional school district bureaucracy. The educational system that required efficiency and effectiveness to produce an informed and literate citizenry for the 20 ^th century is still a highly bureaucratic organization in the 21 ^st century (see, for example Callahan, 1962; Tyack, 1972). Yet, this school system was in a formative stage of significant structural transformation that was supported by a broader and deeper application of technology. This research served as an indicator of emerging organizational change that will challenge the continued viability of traditional face-to-face classroom instruction facilitated by a teacher in a lecture/discussion format.

Study parameters

This research was a descriptive non-experimental case study of a school district administrative staff ‘s perception of the organizational capacity to improve teaching and learning through the use of technology (Johnson, 2001). Interviews of administrators were conducted during a year in which the school district had asked for community support to issue laptop computers to students in grades 7-12 (subsequently passed). This research charted the conditions under which this educational organization was changing to address the needs of twenty-first century learners. The leaders of the school were asked to explain the value and use of hardware and software tools that were adopted to improve teaching and learning. Nine interviews were conducted over a two-day period with central office administrators, principals, and a member of the board of education.

The goal of the research was to determine how this school district was adapting to the changing nature of teaching and learning in the emerging digital age. The specific question under study was, “How does the K-12 school district adapt, as an organization, to the changing nature of teaching and learning caused by the integration of digital learning?” The question required the administrative staff to consider the nature and conditions of learning within the traditional configuration of a centralized school district with teaching in classrooms configured for classroom instruction within brick and mortar buildings for face-to-face teaching in a lecture discussion format.