ABSTRACT
The picture of the school that emerges from the previous section is a little like the hospital portrayed in an episode of the BBC television series ‘Yes Minister’. This new, streamlined and busy institution was the pride of the new health authority. The only snag was that it had not yet opened its doors to patients. In like vein the concerns of organisation theorists may seem remote indeed from the daily confrontations of the classroom, the solemn boredom of the school assembly, the humour and verbal play before the bell. For this reason, the systems model of the school is often rejected by many sociologists as a theoretical encumbrance bringing with it the unstated interests and assumptions of those who hold power. Instead, they argue, the sociology of the school should be widened to encompass all levels of action and experience. Not only does this approach seek to decouple the elements of organisation from one another, but in a deeper sense it strives to understand events as they are experienced in the everyday world of interaction, encounter and negotiation. Instead of assuming that formal roles always constrain the consciousness of actors, this approach denies that there is any such determinate link. Action here is decoupled from structure, experience from official role, situation from formal organisation.
