JVER v25n1 - Presidential Address, AVERA: Keeping on Track to the Future
Keeping on track to the Future
Presidential Address
American Vocational Education Research AssociationHolly Thomas
Florida State University
IntroductionIt has been my privilege to serve as your president during the last year of the Century. The timing has caused me to approach the task differently than I would have at a different point in time. We live in a time when reform seems to be on everyone’s mind (e.g. Lynch, Smith, & Rowjewski, 1994 ; Hilosky & Watwood, 1997 ; O’Reilly, Asche, & Rowland, 1995 ). Because of the timing, I have asked myself whether it is time to think about redirecting AVERA. With this question in mind, I wanted to know how well we are serving the membership and what we should be doing in the future. I have done two things to attempt to provide answers to these questions. First, I appointed a Futures Committee with the anticipation that this group would think out of the box and give us some bold new ideas as well as some ideas of how to fix what we are doing. Secondly, a survey was sent to all of the 1999 membership as well as to those who had been on the 1998 membership list but not on the 1999 list. The development of this survey is pretty much thinking inside of the box. All of this was designed to help us take a look at the changes we need to make in the organization.
We as educators have always been agents of change. We expect our students to make changes in their knowledge, skills and abilities. If they don’t we are obliged to give them a failing grade. We as Vocational Educators, however, have been known for our reluctance to change. As Marion Asche ( 1991 ) has said, Vocational Educators have been accused of starting every sentence about the future of Vocational Education with "now in 1917…" On the other hand, it has been shown that Vocational Educators are seen by their administrators as being very willing to change ( Thomas & Schmidt, 1999 ). The question here is, are we making the changes needed in the organization that are needed to keep it up as a viable force in Vocational Education and what are the changes we should make in the future.
In this presentation I will present some ideas on change and why it is essential to the life of the organization, discuss the findings from the survey, and provide some thoughts about what we might do to keep the viability of the organization at an optimum level. I want to preface my statements with the thought that all of us have been asked to do more and more as our faculties in Vocational Education get smaller and smaller. Thus, the efforts that we are able to put into a professional organization may not be what we would like to be able to give. We need to think about maximizing the returns for the energy expended in nearly everything we do. Thus, I do not seek change for change’s sake.
Change Theory
Why is change important to an organization like ours? When put in bold relief like the Saber Tooth Curriculum ( Benjamin, 1972 ) did many years ago, it is obvious that if one wants to remain relevant, change is necessary. Research in the area of physical systems has shown that a system will entropy when it is allowed to run long enough without a new source of energy ( Horwich, 1987 ). In other words, it will simply run out of energy and run down. It isn’t, however, inevitable that a system must run down. Blanchard and Waghorn ( 1997 ) have written extensively on the life expectancy of organizations. Their theory indicates that a new system starts off slowly, but after a relatively long period of slow growth, builds rapidly for an undetermined amount of time; then after a brief plateau it begins to decline rapidly. This theory is depicted by an S-shaped or sigmoid curve (see Figure 1). Based on this theory, Blanchard and Waghorn’s idea of how to succeed is to start something new just before the old system runs out of energy. In my opinion, that might work in business, but in professional organizations the alternative strategy of generating new energy periodically so that the period of growth goes on indefinitely is more viable. This can be depicted by a Double S curve as shown in Figure 2. This suggests that one should anticipate an impending downturn and start up a new curve so that the system has sufficient energy to sustain itself for another period of time. It is my opinion that this is what the AVERA has done. We can point to many injections of new energy into the system. Incremental changes whether they are large or small can put new energy into an organization. Examples of the changes that the organization has made include the starting of a research journal, sponsoring the Vocational Education SIG at AERA, development of a newsletter, giving awards to worthy members, and including a past presidents forum in the program. If you were to ask me what change the organization has made in recent years that equals these rather major changes, I would point to the AVERA web page for one. There haven’t been as many changes in what we do and how we do it in the last sixteen years as there was in the first sixteen. However, we do get a new infusion of energy each time we elect a new set of officers, elect new members to the Journal Editorial Board, elect a new Editorial Board Chair and appoint a new Journal Editor. Even though there is a learning curve for new officers, a new person will give new insights and provide leadership in a different way.
Actors in the Change Process
Given that changes are needed to keep an organization viable and relevant, we need to know how to bring about change. My experience is that individuals either grouse about the lack of change/relevance or just vote with their feet and fail to renew their membership in the organization that ceases to meet their needs. If this becomes a predominant trend among the membership and a ready source of new members is not available, then it is apparent that entropy is about to occur. We will look at the actors that are necessary for change to occur and then at the process of change.
The actors involved in the change process according to Conner ( 1992 ) include sponsors, agents, targets and advocates. Sponsors are those individuals in an organization who can actually make the changes if the changes advocated pass the muster of being beneficial for the organization. In this organization these actors would be the executive committee or with changes in the Journal, the Editorial Board. Agents are the individuals who actually do the work to make the change. I am afraid that is too often the same folks as those who sponsor the change in this organization. The actors identified as targets are the individuals who need to change. You know, those of us who are out of date and need to be brought into the 21 st century. Finally, but the most important actor, is the advocate for change. This is the person who is not in the position to make the change but wants the change to occur. We need to encourage our membership to advocate for the changes that would make the organization more relevant to their needs and we must let folks know that we want their input and we are listening. It should be made clear that anyone of us may play any of these roles at any point in time, i.e. there is not one set of players who are playing the same roles all of the time. I could be advocating for a change in the Editorial Board policy while being the target, one needing to change, on the Executive Committee etc.
Change Process
The steps in the process of changing an organization involve:
(1) determining member needs; (2) determining which changes to make and which needs to attempt to meet; (3) organizing study groups to focus on implementing the desired changes; (4) developing plans for making the identified changes; (5) implementing the plans developed; and (6) evaluating the results of the change. The process here is similar to that described by Murphy and Lick ( 1998 ) and to the PDSA process described by advocates of TQM ( Deming, W. E., 1990 ). The six-point process proposed here is illustrated in Figure 3. The assumption is that the entire process would be conducted within the context of AVERA and that the mission of the organization would be kept in mind while conducting the process.
We, as officers in the AVERA, perhaps I should limit my generalizations to myself, have a life and a job outside of the organization. Thus we may approach the organization as something we have to get done before the meeting gets here. This often causes me to do what has always been done. Bradshaw ( 1988 ) refers to this mindless tracking on the chores at hand as being done by "human doings". If this process continues in an organization, it is clear that the changing needs of the membership will be ignored. Clearly the needs being met by the activities of the organization will continue to be met; hence the need for determining the needs of the membership is evident. Sources of information about the needs of the membership range from a single member advocating for change to a formal assessment of needs. We should be listening to the membership as well as conducting studies.
When identified, the needs should be discussed and prioritized. In order to do this it is important to look at all of the consequences of making the change as well as to debate the pros and cons of making the change. If the goal of making a change is to create more energy in the organization, we certainly do not want to make changes that will consume more energy than it creates. This is the time when a person or group should be advocating for a change that they want to see occur. To do this they will have to develop a strong case for the change in order to convince those doubters like me.
The use of study groups in bringing about change is clearly presented by Murphy and Lick ( 1998 ) as a useful tool for use in educational organizations. The usual process of this type of activity is that we have the same group doing the thinking, i.e. the executive committee. While the futures group was not supplied with data about the needs of the membership, I did ask them to look at the changes that were needed in the organization. You may note that the committee included two members of the executive committee. However, I asked for volunteers for this committee in two Beacon messages. The only two who volunteered were current officers. I asked a third person to join them.
The fourth step, developing plans for making the identified changes, is certainly not new to vocational educators. We have been teaching others to plan programs by stating the tasks required, setting timelines and establishing critical paths for as long as I can remember. However, other than individual members who have responsibilities for ongoing aspects of the organization, I do not recall a plan for changes or new initiatives being planned systematically. It is my opinion that an organization that seeks to be relevant must seek out needed changes and make the changes in a systematic manner.
Making changes in an organization, step five, requires work and may result in efforts on the part of some members to resist the changes. We know that it is difficult in our current environment to find the time to do extra work for our professional organizations given the increased demands for productivity that everyone seems to be experiencing. For this reason, it seems essential to involve a larger percentage of the membership in the work of the organization. If we identify new initiatives, plan the implementation process and involve our membership in the implementation, I think we can continue to put new energy into the organization.
Finally, evaluation is one of the things vocational educators do well. However, we may not be applying what we know to the organization. It would seem appropriate to evaluate any new initiative that the organization undertakes so that we can determine how well we are doing what we have undertaken and what results the initiative produces.
I have a feeling that many in the audience are asking, "why is this person stating the obvious?" I just think that as we come to the end of a millennium it is time to remind ourselves that the principles that we apply to program development also apply to our professional organization.
Survey of Membership
In an effort to gain a perspective on how the organization is viewed by the members, I have undertaken a survey of the membership to determine their perception of whether we should be undertaking a list of activities and how well we have been doing them. I am sure that many of you completed the survey.
The survey, which asked the extent that the respondents agreed with statements concerning AVERA and the services and opportunities provided by the organization, was sent to all current members. A second questionnaire was sent to individuals who were included on the 1998 AVERA directory but not in the1999 AVERA directory. The total number of surveys sent was 169 for current members and 140 for lapsed members. One of the former and 25 of the latter were returned for insufficient/non-current address. The number of returned useable surveys was 87 (51.5%) for current members and 6 (4.3%) for individuals who had not renewed their membership. Although the survey was sent to individuals whose membership had lapsed at a later point in time, time alone does not account for the non-response of this group. While the lack of response is informative, the responses from the six who did respond were not included in the analysis of data.
The survey was developed based on the records accumulated by the past presidents as well as on the memory of the activities the organization had sponsored by the current president who has attended all AVERA meetings since 1970. Fourteen statements were written reflecting how well the organization has been functioning on the selected items and fourteen similar items reflecting the advisability of the organization continuing to conduct similar activities. A final item asked the extent to which the respondents agree or disagree with the statement that the AVERA membership should consider making a name change.
The analysis of the data was descriptive for each of the 29 statements using means, frequencies and percentages. In addition, the items reflecting the same activity for the current situation and future desired status were paired and response for the current situation subtracted from the desired future status for each respondent. These data were also analyzed using the same descriptive statistics.
Results of the Survey
First, I learned more than the responses to the 29 statements in doing this survey. I learned that we have a viable organization that has the potential of attracting new members. Of the 169 current members we have 43 new members who were not in the 1998 Membership Directory. We also appear to have one institutional member for a total 1999 membership of 170. By comparing the 1999 Membership Directory with the 1998 I discovered that a total of 140 individuals who had been listed as members in 1998 had not renewed in 1999. This may have been an accumulation over a period of years if we were not systematically deleting members who did not renew. The forwarding address of 25 of these 140 individuals had expired forwarding addresses leaving 115 whose addresses had not changed. I had a similar experience with the e-mail addresses. We sent follow-up notices to everyone who had an e-mail address listed. This included 107 former members and 144 current members. Nineteen of the current member e-mails and 57 of the former member e-mails were returned by the internet. While I am not concerned with the fact that the 1998 Directory is out of date, I am concerned that we do not have correct e-mail addresses for our current members listed in the 1999 directory.
The results from the survey indicated that the current AVERA members give a favorable response to the activities listed on the survey. In general, the respondents indicated that the organization should in the future perform at a slightly high level on all of the activities listed. As shown in table 1, the majority of the respondents gave a response of Agree or Strongly Agree on 9 of the fourteen evaluative items of how well AVERA is doing at the present time. The five that did not receive a majority of responses representing this level of agreement were items that relate to representing legislative interest at a national level (27.5%), to providing leadership in the reform of Vocational Education (43.7%), and to providing workshops on research methods (37.9%), statistical techniques (21.8%), and acquisition of grants (21.8%). The items receiving more than three-fourths of the respondent ratings of Agree and Strongly Agree were "Providing ample opportunities for members to present their research" (83.9%), and "Recognizing the most deserving members by presenting awards to them" (82.8%).
TABLE 1
Frequency of Response by Survey Item
RESPONSE
ITEM
SA A U D SD 1p Provided ample opportunities to present their research. 31 42 8 6 0 1f Provide opportunities for members to present their research. 76 11 0 0 0 2p Provided ample opportunity for members to publish their research 20 45 10 11 1 2f Provide opportunities for members to publish their research 75 12 0 0 0 3p Provided ample opportunities for members to discuss their innovative ideas. 10 44 15 16 2 3f Provide opportunities for members to discuss their innovative ideas. 52 34 1 0 0 4p Provided an excellent forum for discussing emerging trends in Vocational Education 10 46 17 12 2 4f Provide a forum for discussing emerging trends in Vocational Education 53 33 1 0 0 5p Represented the members’ legislative interests at the national level. 5 19 40 20 3 5f Represent the members legislative interest at the national level. 35 34 11 4 3 6p Provided adequate workshops concerning research methods for members. 4 29 32 17 5 6f Provide workshops concerning research methods for members. 38 35 11 3 0 7p Provided adequate workshops on emerging statistical techniques. 3 16 43 19 6 7f Provide workshops on the emerging statistical techniques. 33 36 15 2 1 8p Provided adequate workshops on publishing in the JVER 11 39 22 11 4 8f Provide workshops on publishing in the JVER. 35 44 5 3 0 9p Provided adequate workshops on the acquisition of grants. 3 16 42 20 6 9f Provide workshops on the acquisition of grants. 22 45 11 8 1 10p Provided leadership opportunities for the membership. 20 42 20 3 2 10f Provide leadership opportunities for the membership. 44 35 8 0 0 11p Represented the membership in the New & Related Services Division of AVA (ACTE) 20 44 20 2 1 11f Represent the membership in New and Related Services Division of AVA (ACTE) 42 38 5 0 2 12p Recognized the most deserving members by presenting awards to them. 28 44 12 13 0 12f Recognize the most deserving by presenting awards to them. 46 39 2 0 0 13p Provided leadership in the of Vocational Education 7 31 25 20 4 13f Provide leadership in the of Vocational Education 50 29 6 2 0 14p Provided a mission statement that has guided the organization. 12 38 33 3 1 14f Revise the mission statement to provide new guidance for the organization 28 30 26 2 1 15 Consider making a name change 26 16 26 9 10 p = indicates in the past f = indicates in the future
The responses to the activities that AVERA should be doing in the future were rated high with all of the items receiving a rating of Agree or Strongly Agree by more than two-thirds of the respondents. Nine of the 14 items receiving these ratings came from more than 90 percent of the respondents. The five items that received less than 90 percent of the response of Agree and Strongly Agree were those relating to representing legislative interest (79.3%), revising the AVERA mission statement (66.7%) and providing workshops concerning statistical techniques (79.3%), research methods (83.9%), and acquisition of grants (77.0%). It should be noted that the verb used with the item about the mission statement was "revise" rather than "provide" which would have given data parallel to the other items.
It can be observed that many of the items that were rated lower for the activities that the organization is currently doing are also the ones that were rated lower for the things that AVERA should be doing. This prompted me to look at the difference between the responses given by each individual for the 14 pairs of items. This procedure produced a possible scale of negative 4 to a positive 4 with the negative score representing respondents who more strongly agreed that the organization was doing activities than they agreed that the organization should be doing in the future. The positive responses represented the converse. table 2 presents the data from the discrepancy analysis. It may be noted that the discrepancy scores equal to or less than positive or negative 1 accounted for one-half of the responses with the range being from 55.2 percent to 92.0 percent. The five items for which the frequency of discrepancy scores of equal to or greater than positive or negative 2 exceeded 30 percent were (a) "Provide workshops on the emerging statistical techniques (44.8%)", (b) "Provide workshops concerning research methods (41.4%)", (c) "Provide workshops on the acquisition of grants" (36.8%), (d) "Provide leadership in the reform of Vocational Education" (35.6%), and (e) "Represent the members’ legislative interest at the national level" (35.6%). The five items for which the discrepancy scores were equal to or greater than positive or negative 2 was less than 20 percent were (a) "Recognize the most deserving members by presenting awards to them" (8.0%), (b) "Provide leadership opportunities for the membership" (11.5%), (c) Represent the membership in the New and Related Services Division" (11.5%), (d) "Provide opportunities for members to present their research" (16.1%), and (e) Provide (revise) the mission statement to provide new guidance for the organization" (18.4%). It should be noted that the discrepancy concerning the mission statement should be questioned given the inconsistency between the wording of the items. For this item, there were nearly as many negative as positive discrepancy scores.
TABLE 2.
Frequency of discrepancy by survey item pair
DISCREPANCY
ITEM 3 4 2 1 1 2 3 4 1p Provided ample opportunities to present their research. 0 0 0 40 33 9 5 0 1f Provide opportunities for members to present their research 2p Provided ample opportunity for members to publish their research. 0 0 0 30 35 11 10 1 2f Provide opportunities for members to publish their research. 3p Provide ample opportunities for members to discuss their innovative ideas. 0 0 1 31 30 11 13 1 3f Provide opportunities for members to discuss their innovative ideas 4p Provided an excellent forum for discussing emerging trends in Vocational Education. 0 0 3 24 37 14 8 1 4f Provide a forum for discussing emerging trends in Vocational Education. 5p Represented the members’ legislative interests at the national level. 0 1 3 23 30 20 10 0 5f Represent the members legislative interest at thenational level. 6p Provided adequate workshops concerning research methods for members. 0 1 1 25 25 23 10 2 6f Provide workshops concerning research methods for members. 7p Provided adequate workshops on emerging statistical techniques. 0 2 1 25 22 25 8 4 7f Provide workshops on emerging statistical techniques. 8p Provided adequate workshops on publishing in the JVER. 0 0 8 31 26 14 7 1 8f Provide workshops on publishing in the JVER. 9p Provided adequate workshops on the acquisition of grants. 0 1 4 25 26 23 8 0 9f Provide workshops on the acquisition of grants. 10p
Provided leadership opportunities for the membership.
0
0
6
41
30
7
2
1
10f Provide leadership opportunities for the membership. 11p Represented the membership in the New and Related Services Division of AVA (ACTE). 0 1 4 49 24 8 1 0 11f Represent the membership in the New and Related Services Division of AVA (ACTE) 12p Recognized the most deserving members by presenting awards to them. 0 0 6 49 25 6 1 0 12f Recognize the most deserving members by presenting awards to them. 13p Provided leadership in the reform of Vocational Education. 0 0 5 17 34 17 11 3 13f Provide leadership in the reform of Vocational Education. 14p Provided a mission statement that has guided the organization. 1 2 22 26 23 9 3 1 14f Revise the mission statement to provide new guidance for the organization. p = indicates in the past f = indicates in the future
Another way to look at the discrepancy scores is to observe that more than one-half of the respondents had discrepancy scores of positive 1 or greater for 10 of the 14 items. In addition, 8 of the items had a mean discrepancy score of 1.00 or greater. Thus, it seems that the organization is perceived as having room to improve.
The last item on the survey was concerning whether the AVERA should consider changing the name. Nearly one-half (48.3%) of the respondents either agreed or strongly agreed with this statement while 21.8 percent either disagreed or strongly disagreed. Twenty-six (29.9%) of the respondents were undecided.
At the time of this writing there were insufficient responses from the non-renewal group to make any generalizations about the organization in terms of the responses to items. This lack of response can, in part, be attributed to the addresses used. However, this does not nearly explain the response rate. Of those who did respond, predominant reasons given for not being a current member was either that they thought they were or that they had intended to renew but had failed to do so. Please remember that we are dealing with a response rate of 4.3 percent.
Conclusions
The conclusions drawn here are from several sources: the literature, the survey data, comments written on the survey, and a combination of the above three sources with my thoughts thrown in for good measure.
Conclusions from the Literature
As I reread the literature in preparation for this presentation I thought of the implications of the literature for our organization. I am usually thinking of the implications for others such as in school districts. Thus, the literature affected me in different ways. Here are some of the things that came to mind.
- An organization that does not inject new energy into the organization will entropy over time. This organization has had infusions of new energy from time to time and has benefited from both the leadership and new member energy. We should be conscientiously aware of the need for renewal of energy to sustain our organization and to anticipate when new initiatives are needed to meet the needs of the membership.
- The literature indicates that there are various actors in the change process and that a change needs a sponsor who has the authority to see that the appropriate steps are taken to move the change through the system. Equally important, however, is the advocate for change–that young person who sees a need for change and lets his/her opinions be known. We need to cultivate an environment in which everyone feels that his/her ideas for change will be heard.
- Inclusion of a greater percentage of the membership in the dialog about changing the organization will result in more energy being created. Appointing special groups to do tasks for the organization is a way to involve more members in getting the work done. The idea that the Executive Committee should do all of the work is a control mechanism that will limit the scope of the organization
- A systematic process for obtaining input about the needs of the membership is desirable for the health of the organization. A process for winnowing the input should be developed and systematically used. It is important for the members to know that feedback is desired and will be considered. However, it is important to choose new initiatives carefully in order to maximize the return on the energy expended.
- Change for change sake has no productive use other than to dissipate scarce energy and resources. Proposed changes should be discussed and the consequences of making and not making the change thoroughly understood. Resistance to change is healthy, at least up to a point. It gives air to the discussion of why the change is important and requires the individuals proposing the change to express the needed change in greater detail and with acceptable clarity.
- We need to change the culture in the organization so that we get input from a broad spectrum of members about the types of changes that need to occur. New members are in the best position to make suggestions about what would make the organization more relevant to them.
Conclusions from the survey of members
There are many conclusions that could be drawn from the data collected by the survey of the membership. It is gratifying to know that at least one-half of the membership will take the time to respond to a survey about the organization. It is my opinion that this simple survey is just the beginning of the assessment of the activities of the organization. I hope that we can move to an assessment of needs of the membership and make progress on meeting those needs that are congruent with the mission of AVERA and most important to the membership. The conclusions that I drew from the results of the survey are:
- The response of the membership regarding how well the AVERA is doing in conducting the various activities listed was very positive. With the exception of two items concerning workshops on statistics and research methods, all items received a majority of the ratings in the agree/strongly agree category.
- Without exception the desired future status for all activities received a higher percentage of agree/strongly agree ratings than were given for the present status. It seems that, although the organization is rated favorably, there is still room for improvement.
- Some individual respondents rated the present status higher on the agree scale than they rated the desired future status. These discrepancy scores rarely exceeded one scale point, however. It would thus seem that there is reason to look closely at the activities and question whether the organization should do the activities in the future.
- With the number of new members that we have and the favorable response that was given for conducting workshops in such topics as statistics, research methods, and acquisition of grants, it seems advisable to consider the possibility of resuming these activities. To my knowledge these activities have not been done for many years. Some of us who have been members for a long time are also likely candidates for these activities.
- The time appears right to consider a change in the name of the organization. The item on the survey stated that a name change should be considered which does not lead me to conclude that the membership considers a name change to be imperative or necessarily advisable. Rather it seems important for the membership of the organization to weigh the alternatives.
Recommendations for the future
In preparing this presentation I have made some conclusions that are not necessarily based on sound evidence, i.e. more my opinion than fact perhaps. I will list a few.
- The data and literature gathered for this presentation suggest that change is essential to the health of organizations. The survey data gathered seem to indicate some possible changes. However, an extensive need assessment is recommended prior to making major changes in the organization.
- The membership should be provided the opportunity to be involved in as many aspects of the organizational life as possible. The executive committee and editorial board tend do the work themselves rather than delegate.
- An on going futures committee composed of a cross section of membership should be appointed and asked to think outside the box and make recommendations for change in the activities of the organization.
- A study should be conducted to determine the reasons for the drop in membership over the past year. It is obvious that I was not able to tap the reasons for this reduction. At this point I do not know whether this is a statement about the health of the organization or natural attrition due to retirement and the like.
- The fact that forty-four new members were attracted to the organization is indicative of the organizational health. I would recommend that we look carefully at the recruitment process as well as retention process that we are using and determine what we should do in the future to maintain a viable organization.
I have appreciated the opportunity to serve as the president of AVERA. I hope that the next millennium will start off with a new burst of energy and that we are able to make a difference in the preparation of the workforce for the nation.
References
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Benjamin, H. R.W. (1972). Saber-tooth curriculum, by Abner Peddiwell . New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Blanchard, K. H. & Waghorn, T. (1997). Mission possible: Becoming a world-class organization while there is still time. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Bradshaw, J. (1988). Healing the shame that binds you . Deerfield Beach, FL: Health Communications.
Conner, R. D. (1993). Managing at the speed of change. How resilient managers succeed and prosper where others fail . New York, NY: Villard Books.
Deming, W. E. (1990 ). Manual for training in the Deming method North Miami, FL: Deming Method consulting Group.
Hilosky, A. & Watwood, B. (1997). transormational leadership in a changing world: A survival guide for new chairs and deans. Annual International Conference for Community & Technical College Chairs, Deans, and Other Organizational Leaders, Reno, NV.
Horwich, P. (1987). Asymmetries in time: Problems in the philosophy of science . Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Murphy, C. U. & Lick, D. W. (1998). Whole-faculty study groups: A powerful way to change school and enhance learning . Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, Inc.
O’Reilly, P.A., Asche, F. M., & Rowland, B. K. (1995). A field-based approach to vocational education reform. Annual Convention of the American Vocational Association Denver, CO.
Rojewski, J.R, Lynch, R. L., & Smith, C. L. (1992). a vision for secondary vocational education. Journal of Vocational Education Research 17 (4), p. 41-65.
Thomas, H. & Schmidt, M. (1999). Attitudes of vocational educators toward change. Annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Montreal.
Author
HOLLIE B. THOMAS is past President [1999] of the American Vocational Education Research Association and Professor of Educational Leadership, Florida State University, College of Education, 113 Stone Building, Tallahassee, FL 32306-4452. [E-mail: thomas@coe.fsu.edu ]