Product Description
Indonesian Education: Teachers, Schools, and Central Authority, the first published study of life inside Indonesian schools, explores the role that classroom teachers' behavior and locates their actions within the broader cultures of education and government in Indonesia. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A valuable account of Indonesian education
Don't get fooled by the boring cover: Indonesian Education is an enjoyable account of how history can create its own barriers to progress. To be exact, it tells a story of how school-based actors respond to central government's policy to decentralize education that began in early 1990s in Indonesia.

Chris Bjork, however, uses this account to enlighten his readers of a broader story -- a puzzle, in fact -- he found during his preliminary visits, to wit, how Indonesian teachers saw their professional responsibility not, primarily, to provide instructions but instead as an executor of central government policy.

Taking history as his starting point, he argues, compellingly, that given the New Order government's obsession with nation-building, teachers are "set up" to become extensions of the state apparatus. Hence, in other words, teachers become 'teacher-bureaucrats' -- emphasis often on the latter.

Bjork then goes on to show how this came in conflict with the government's own plan to decentralize education as a way to improve quality. While decentralization required teachers to take initiative, the institutional culture set up by the New Order adamantly refused to allow teacher initiative and innovation back into schools.

The book distills Bjork's 13-month study in the late 1990s. Despite the fact that it has that typical dissertation-like structure, it is very well written, interspersed with lots of narratives that are both interesting and engrossing. It's fun to read. Clearly, a must-read for people interested in the development of education policy in developing countries. ... Read more

Product Description
Introduction to Sociology, 5/e takes a balanced,eclectic approach to teaching basic sociology.The book presents all three major perspectives throughout in a way that makes them accessible to all levels of students.Each chapter includes several provocative readings that will elicit student interest and discussion and that act as a built-in reader.An in-text study guide reinforces learning and adds value for students. ... Read more

Product Description
This book analyzes the phenomenon of organization within the framework of universal sociocultural evolution. We should not assume that bureaucracy is the only available organizational form; on the contrary, the author believes that bureaucracy is becoming increasingly obsolete in facing the realities of modern people, technologies, power relations and world tension. The main purpose of this book is to justify the need for a genuine organizational innovativeness in the democratic West by a sociological diagnosis of present-day trends and social necessities originating from them. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from The Futurist, published by World Future Society on January 1, 1998. The length of the article is 884 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the supplier: Strategies are presented to reduce bureaucracy in the government. These include government self-examinations, decentralization of government power, creation of practices for customer satisfaction and the privatization of some government functions.

Citation Details
Title: Reducing government bureaucracy. (civil service reform)
Author: Jeffrey H. Epstein
Publication: The Futurist (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 1, 1998
Publisher: World Future Society
Volume: v32Issue: n1Page: p10(2)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A book about Clarence, NY
This book is about a gypsum mine in Clarence, NY ... Read more

Product Description
Assistance in capturing that 'fascination in sociology' which teachers want to impart to students. Intersections is a rich and diverse archive of high quality readings to enable both professors and students to access the minds and ideas that illuminate and help explain some of the central ideas and issues in sociology. ... Read more