Stalking the micro-politics of schools in pursuit of a realistic research agenda

The last decade has witnessed a period of endemic reform within educational systems and schools. In particular, changes have been implemented that may entail different configurations of decision‐making at the site level with significant reverberations for the workplace environment of the school. This paper suggests that because of the ubiquity of reform, rich opportunities have been provided for researching educational change. Nevertheless, in order to develop a holistic understanding of the effect of change in schools a perspective is required that takes Into account the socio‐political and cultural context of an organisation. For this purpose, the micro‐political perspective may be able to convey a more realistic depiction organisational behaviour than conventional theory has been able to offer. Therefore, this paper elucidates the major ideas of some prominent micro‐political theorists and makes recommendations for future research into aspects of life in schools. It is hoped that the paper may contribute to a revival of the micro‐political perspective in conducting educational research.