Date of Award

4-1983

Degree Name

Doctor of Education

Department

Educational Leadership

First Advisor

Dr. Donald C. Weaver

Second Advisor

Dr. John Sandberg

Third Advisor

Dr. Ernie Stech

Abstract

The purpose of this study was twofold: First, to identify indicators of system openness that are related to the community education program components offered by a school district and, second, to investigate the extent to which the indicators of system openness relate to the community education program components offered by a school district.

The population of this study consisted of six community educators working in separate K-12 school organizations.

A survey instrument was developed to meet the requirements of this study: The measurement of community education programs and the indicators of system openness. A review of the literature on community education and system openness was used to develop the survey instrument.

The respondents completed the survey instrument and were interviewed in their respective school organizations. The interview was designed to gather information on the community education programs and the indicators of system openness. In addition, the interview was to provide information to the respondents as they completed the survey instrument.

The results of the study point out that the indicators of a system's openness--namely, cosmopolitanism of the leaders, external communications, and system openness--appear to have relevance to community educators in school organizations as follows: (1) Cosmopolitanism of leaders had a tendency to be higher in those school organizations that also had higher scores on the level of commitment to the community education programs as perceived by the community educator. (2) The exchange of information between the school organization and its environment was higher in those school organizations that had higher scores on the level of program as perceived by the community education director. (3) System openness, as measured in the present study, had a tendency to be higher in those school organizations that had higher scores on the level of commitment to community education program.

Access Setting

Dissertation-Open Access

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