ABSTRACT
In April 1992, at the time this research was completed, the Victorian government school system had been undergoing evolutionary change in devolution of authority from the centralized bureaucracy to the school level. School councils were engaging in participative, collaborative decision-making processes involving the whole school community, namely, teachers, parents and students (at secondary level) and sharing responsibility for determining their own curricula within the principles and framework of government policy. Regional boards of education had been established as a mechanism for collective decision-making between the school, the region and the central Ministry of Education. Education regions were viewed as collections of schools and schooling services in specific geographical areas. The schools in this study were located in one such region of the Victoria’s Ministry of Education, each functioning through its own school council. It is important to note that since that time massive school reform has taken place in terms of the devolution of authority to Victorian government schools, now known as Schools of the Future, however these reforms are not the subject of this book.
