Dr. William Allan Kritsonis Professor & Faculty Mentor PhD Program in Educational Leadership PVAMU-The Texas A&M University System

1. NATIONAL FORUM OF APPLIED EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH JOURNAL
VOLUME 23, NUMBERS 1 & 2, 2009-2010
STRATEGIC PLANNING IN SCHOOLS: A VIEW THROUGH
THE LENS OF THE SIX WAYS OF KNOWING THROUGH THE
REALMS OF MEANING
David M Palmer
PhD Student in Educational Leadership
Whitlowe R. Green College of Education
Prairie View A&M University
William Allan Kritsonis, PhD
Professor & Faculty Mentor
PhD Program in Educational Leadership
Hall of Honor (2008)
William H. Parker Leadership Academy
Whitlowe R. Green College of Education
Prairie View A&M University
The Texas A&M University System
Visiting lecturer (2005)
Oxford Round Table
University of Oxford, Oxford, England
Distinguished Alumnus (2004)
College of Education and Professional Studies
Central Washing University
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ABSTRACT
The act of planning has a reflexive component implying that schools are more
than just passive pawns in the hands of socioeconomic forces. Strategic planning,
in the form of school improvement planning, has become the dominant approach
to school management. This has evolved from earlier forms of strategic planning
and has significant inherent weaknesses that undermine the extent to which
school improvement planning can contribute to the effective management of
schools. The six patterns in the Ways of Knowing Through the Realms of Meaning
(Kritsonis, 2007) namely symbolics, empirics, esthetics, synnoetics, ethics and
synoptic can improve strategic planning and give us better schools.
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