The Micro-Macro Dilemma in Organizational Research

DiMaggio (1991) calls the question of how individual agents produce and reproduce macrostructures the “Holy Grail” of social science theory. He outlines three main analytical bridges across the macro-micro divide: microtranslation, aggregation, and systems explanations. Microtranslation, according to DiMaggio merely involves offering “plausible accounts of how macro-structural models are consistent with…micro-level processes.” (p. 77). Aggregation “requires modeling macro outcomes as cumulations of micro events.” Systems explanations also endeavor to take into account the interactions between the macro level outcomes.

he notes that this problem has lead to "an increasing distance between theory and research and a proliferation of sectarian theoretical solutions"

if we return to Parsonian ideas... return to consider "theory of action"...

DiMaggio is arguing in this article that organizational analyses are a good way to bridge the micro events and macrostructures...



DiMaggio, P. (1991). The Micro-Macro Dilemma in Organizational Research: Implications of Role-System Theory. In J. Huber (Ed.), Macro-Micro Linkages in Sociology (pp. 76-98). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

Two Decades of Education Reform in China: Priorities and Implications

in this chapter Cheng Kaiming provides many examples of how the current education reform policy context differs from earlier eras.

important contrasts include a shift from the overwhelming focus on political development during the CR to an overwhelming focus on economic development during the Deng era of opening and reform.

"Although economic development ("production") was never forgotten, the ideological underpinning of the Cultural Revolution was that economic development could be achieved only by carrying through radical ideological changes and political development ("revolution"). From this perspective, the reforms of the past two decades are a restoration of economic rationality and legality in the society. There has been a reversion of political ideology, back to one that believes that economic development should prevali as a policy priority. This was the crux of Deng Xiaoping's Four Modernizations pronounced in the late 1970s, and confirmed by his later advocacy in the mid-1980s. In this context, educational development is formulated as part of the economic discourse. Although one may aruge that there are still traces of the radical ideology here and there in the education arena, those are at best residuals of a bygone era. To date, economic development is still seen as the prime goal of education reform and hence still colors discussions of the educational agenda." p. 2-3


a second dilemma is the national needs/individual needs dilemma. this is manifested for example in the previous emphasis on centralized manpower planning which with increasing decentralization has shifted to individuals having the right to make their own career decisions...

"from a historical perspective, the emphasis on specialization could be regarded as a remainder of the socialist planning ideology. until the 1970s, China practiced perhaps the world's largest and most sophisticated system of manpower planning and accordingly educational planning...each individual was seen as a cog in a large machine."

"moral/ideological education is still very much seen as a necessary instrument for national development, and political stability for the sake of economic prosperity. the entire system sill works in a paradigm of pragmatism; only economic pragmatism has taken over political pragmatism. there is little in policy discussions even among academics that goes beyond such a paradigm. teh lack of humanistic disocurse in the discussion of education policies is rather peculiar in a culture that has always placed a high value on teh non-cognitive dimension of education."

this movement towards decentralization is an important one distinguishign CR and OR eras...

decentralization has resulted in increasing disparity...

I like Cheng's discussion of the creation of political concepts that unite basic paradoxes. He includes:

disparity vs. diversity
Long term goals vs. transitional expediency
authority of central government vs. decentralization

the transition from quantity to quality goals.

"there is a general movement to depoliticize moral education at teh school level. teh non-academic lives in schools have been very much enriched over the years as resources have become more available. ..."moral educaton" now concentrates on the cultivation of personal behaviors and values. Studies on student development, parental beliefs, and career choices concur that individuals' future and returns have overwhelmed student and parent decisions. this is very different from the high values placed on national goals during the revolutionary days."

Cheng, K. M. (2003). Two Decades of Education Reform in China: Priorities and Implications. In E. Hannum & A. Park (Eds.), Education Reform in China: Unpublished manuscript.

Educational administration in China

The National People’s Congress (NPC) is the supreme state power of the People's Republic of China which has the final authority over all other state organs. The main functions and powers of the NPC include formulation of laws, delegating authority, policy formulation, and supervision of other governing organs. For example, the NPC has the right to enact and amend the constitution of the People's Republic of China; to elect the president and vice-president of the People's Republic of China; to appoint and approve premier, vice-premiers, State councilors, ministers in charge of ministries and commissions; the right to examine and approve government reports; to examine and approve the plan for national economic and social development and reports on its implementation; to examine and approve the State budget and reports on its implementation; to approve the establishment of provinces, autonomous region s and municipalities directly under the Central Government; to decide on the establishment of special administrative regions and the systems to be instituted within these regions; and to declare war and sign treaties of peace. Under the current Constitution and related laws, the NPC holds a session on the first quarter of each year, convened by its Standing Committee. A single term of a NPC deputy is five years (People's Daily Online, 2006a).

The State Council of the People's Republic of China is the highest executive organ of state power, as well as the highest organ of state administration. Under the current Constitution, the State Council exercises the power of administrative legislation, the power to submit proposals, the power of administrative leadership, the power of economic management, the power of diplomatic administration, the power of social administration, and other powers granted by the NPC and its Standing Committee. The State Council is responsible for carrying out the principles and policies of the Communist Party of China as well as the regulations and laws adopted by the NPC, and dealing with such affairs as China's internal politics, diplomacy, national defense, finance, economy, culture and education (People's Daily Online, 2006b).

The Ministry of Education is a central government agency under the State Council, responsible for China’s educational undertakings and language work. The main responsibilities of the MOE include: the establishment of the guiding principles and policies for China’s educational development and the drafting of relevant rules and regulations; the management of educational finance; the investigation and promotion of the curriculum standards, teaching requirements and unified teaching materials for primary and secondary education; the direction and evaluation of pedagogical reforms; the implementation of 9-year compulsory education; the eradication of illiteracy; the management and reform of higher education; the planning and direction of the educational work and assistance for minority nationalities; the construction of Communist Party Committee in institutions of higher learning and the work of ideology and politics education, moral, physical, health, arts, and national defense education in schools of different levels; the administration of teachers' work, and the development of teacher quality; planning and management of student recruitment at all levels; the planning and direction of research in the natural and social sciences; the management and coordination of international cooperation and exchange; the collection, analysis and the popularization and testing of Mandarin; the planning for the conferral of academic degrees; as a liaison with UNESCO; and all other work assigned by the State Council (Functions of the Ministry of Education, 2006).
All other levels of government at the county level and above are responsible for matters of education in their respective jurisdictions and are to report to the People’s Congress at that respective level on all the education work, supervision and educational finance (see Chen & Liu, 2002).

Three represents: Ideology of the Fourth Generation

The 16th congress of the NPC saw the transition from JZM to Hu Jintao and the unveiling of the important thought (zhuyao sixiang) of the Three Represents. this was accompanied by a visionary statement of JZM to build a "well off society" (xiaokang shehui) and all round developpment.

the policitical significance of the three represents lies in the fact that they are expected to maintain continuity between the present set of policies and the future.

"The amendment to the party constitution adopted by the sixteenth congress of May 14 2002 announced that the Party respresents the

1. Development trend of China's advanced productive forces (xianjin shengchanli)
2. Orientation of China's advanced culture (xianjin wenhua)
3. Fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the Chinese people (jueda duoshu ren de genben liyi)"

the article gives a nice overview of the shifting focus during the three generations of leadership in china and how each generation legitimates the previous generation, establishes consensus and a sense of continuity with the past but tries to add something creative for the current society and push china forward.

Mohanty postulates that there was quite a bit of hesitation on the part of the other members of the Politburo standing committee about the three represents as its implications were far reaching. however it is said that hu Jintao has been a strong supporter. one of the important implications is that of the extension of party membership. JZM said

"It is not advisable to judge a person's political orientation simply by whether he or she owns property, and how much property he or she owns. but rather we should judge him or her mainly by his or her political awareness, moral integrity and performance..."

"it was reported that during the annual retreat of the Party at Beidaihe in August 2001 there were heated exchanges regarding teh adoption of the Three Represents. Inner-Party debates continued throughout the period till teh following year's retreat." eventually JZM and his supporters won out and they managed to negotiate the acceptance of the Three Represents.

"In his report to the sixteenth congress, Jiang Zemin discusses the Three Represents in the section on 'Strengthen and Improve Party Building' adn treats it as necessary for improving the party's art of leadership and governance. He called upon especially the senior and middle rank cadres to 'emancipate their minds'--asking them to stop questioning this formulation. he urged them to 'keep pace with the times and boldly engage in practice and innovation.'

there are reforms in the direction of democracy at the local level however the guiding principle is "that political process must serve the need for social stability which is necessary for the economic development of China" p. 245

Mohanty, M. (2003). Three Represents: Ideology of the Fourth Generation. China Report, 39(2)

Social Control in China: A Study of Chinese Work Units by Victor Shaw

Chapter one offers a general survey of the chinese work unit.

"for individuals it is where they work, live, build a social network, and realize their goals for career develoment and personal success. for hte society it is the basic unit of action. for the Chinese Communist Party in particular it is th efirst and last organizational bastion where policy lines and programs are executed." p. 4

"spiritual control is implemented by work units too. Mao urged the work unit to become the "big school" for people to learn marxism, leninism and mao zedong thought. political study is officially enforced in teh work unit, each of which has propaganda staff and instruments to educate people and keep them informed of basic party policies. Deng's talk after the 1989 Tiananmen Square event was said to have been transmitted to every employee and then every urban resident, in one day, through the work unit network." p. 22

"formal social control involves an external secondary authority enforcing promulgated laws and imposing sanctions through explicit procedures adn complex bureaucracies...it begins with the emergence of slave systems, feudal lords, or city states in civilized history. informal social control in contrast applies spiritual or materialistic incentives to engage individuals in collective actions for goal attainment or dispute settlement outside a court for the return of community order. Based upon primary group relations ti is as old as the human existence. (p.27)

"The Post Mao period has seen the expansion of formal control agencies such as education, laws, the police, courts and prisons. Formalism takes a greater hold. But informalism has not yet lost its ingrained influence. A unified ideology, a strong family, a high degree of community solidarity, and a close link between citizens and authority still function for socialization and crime prevention." p. 31

in discussing the various forms of social control in the chinese work unit the first form of control that is discussed is that of "control through ideology"

"Ideological control is based on the controlleej's trust and teh leaders' capacity to offer a convincing interpretation of reality, an attractive vision of the possible future, and a prescription for how to reach that vision." p. 42

"in china, ideological control is publicly know is spiritual control. coupled with teh Confucian ideal of ruling people by wisdom, spiritual control is a deeply rooted Chinese tradition. Confucian philosophy taught officials and members of the intelligentsia that those who win the people's mind win the earth under heaven. In teh Art of War Senzi stressed attacking the mind as a better strategy than attacking the castle...Mao said that the key to revolutionary success is to propagandize, persuade and educate the masses. In terms of intensity and scope, spiritual control has been reinforced under the CCP reign, becoming a basic feature of common citizens' daily life. To a degree, "freedom of silence" cherished by some old-fashioned Chinese scholars is not even possible for an illiterate peasant in a remote area under the CCP mass propaganda.
Chinese studies in the West have analyzed the role of ideology and spiritual control in Chinese political dynamics. Mass media researchers point out that the CCP utilizes propaganda to spread its policies, build social consensus, and mobilize the population for social programs. Political analysts find that ideological tension results in mass movements and that spiritual control legitimizes political establishments...Legal scholars notice that political studies, legal education, heroic models, adn thought reform provide the CCP with effective weapons to propagandize rules and legal codes, normalize individual behavior, and rehabilitate deviants in labor camps." p. 43

"the core of communist spiritual control is composed of Marxism, Leninism, Mao zedong thought, deng's talks, and party documents...to effecively implement spiritual control, the CCP has in general developed the following strategies. one is to establish an all-inclusive socialist theory for a uniform explanation of everything...excerpts from Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Deng, and official documents constitute the cornerstone of this theoretical system. ...still another strategy is to publicize policies through media, bulletins, and street posters, ensuring that all sources utter one voice to the common people...

Chinese work units in the overall spiritual control, serve as relay stations through which the party throughts and policies can reach individuals. Mao called the work unit a school where people learn revolutionary theories and turn them into actions. In official jargon, it is the propaganda front for the party to convey its will and decisions to the masses." (p. 43)

In Figure 4.1 Shaw diagrams the channels for ideological control.

the CCP official ideology is conveyed through the central propaganda department via documents, newspapers, radio and television, to the work unit which then conveys this ideology to all individuals through tv, radio, the various organizations within it, newsletters, weekly political studies, blackboard news, mass meetings, wall news.


"What duties does the work unit's propaganda buildup assume? ...publicizing party policy lines and state rules, informing unit members of current situations (mainly political events), delivering unit news and administrative directives, praising good persons and good events within the unit, establishing models and advancing unit task performances, organizing shows and excursions and entertainmetns that convey communist values and create a sense of collectivity, and managing important unit events such as anniversary celebrations." (p. 48)

"weekly political study has been institutionalized as a standard practice. there is no clearly written rule about it. but according to the interview and my own observation it is well enforced throughout the country. all respondents said their work units have regular political studies. unit employees are called together once a week in teams or groups to study official documents, important editorials, or current political events. the study is customarily scheduled on a thursday or saturday afternoon, lasting two to three hours...attendance for political study is mandatory. Absence without prior request leads to implicit or explicit penalties...many respondents indicated that their work units hold all-employee meetings in divisions or throughout the entire unit after almost every CCP's national congress, for a concentrated study of major party decisions and policy changes...what is teh effect of these various means and activities of propaganda? a number of interviewees said that they are superficial, dogmatic, adn disliked by most unity empolyees. however, all agreed that they are the main sources of information from which they know the party, society and even the world." p. 48-49

Shaw argues that ideological control is more a form of socialization. "the essence of ideological control is to inculcate the desired values, ideals, and worldviews into the minds of the controllees and thereby to keep them in line or have them achieve the goal intended by the controller. ..In the setting of the Chinese work units ideological control exists as an organizational process to shape the actions of unit members for the unit's task performance in particular adn for society's collective goal in general. ...the effect of ideological control is primarily epitomized in mass motivation and policy legitimation. by motivation, people are enthusiastically aroused to self-consciously commit to teh goals and programs of their work units in particular and their society in general. through legitimation, important policy changes are made theoretically justifiable and practically necessary. skepticism is thus cleared, opposition is removed, and the entire population is included with total dedication in the new initiatives.

"Chinese ideological control is unique in that it is based upon communist ideologies and implemented by the political-economic machinery controlled by the communist party. it is inclusive adn intensive, involving all citizens for deep and constant exposure to its content." p. 52

This book is about social control in the early years of opening and reform. my guess is that the work unit has less and less influence in modern day china as privatization soars. all the same, the work unit model persists in the educational sector and an understanding of the structure and organization of Chinese work units can provide insight into the mechanisms through which policy documents exert their ideological influence on teachers and educators.

Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics by Liping Ma

A Book Review by Chita DuvalAMTRA Newsletter - 2000


In the conclusion of her book, Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics, Liping Ma writes, "while we want to work on improving students’ mathematics education, we also need to improve their teachers’ knowledge of school mathematics." Struck by the consistent underperformance of U.S. students in national and international tests, such as the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), Ma set about investigating teachers’ understandings of elementary school mathematics. In a comparative study of 23 U.S. teachers and 72 Chinese teachers of comparable levels of experience, she found that unlike their Chinese counterparts, these U.S. teachers—both experienced and new teachers—lacked a "profound understanding of fundamental mathematics (PUFM)."
In order to arrive at this conclusion Ma interviewed individual teachers, presenting them with four problems: subtraction with regrouping, multidigit multiplication, division by fractions, and perimeter and area of a closed figure. The first four chapters contain lengthy discussions of how each teacher approached solving and interpreting each problem. The results of these interviews provide insights into how both U.S. and Chinese teachers approach teaching and explaining these types of problems. The results were not encouraging. For example, given the problem 1 ¾ ¸ ½, only 43% of the U.S. teachers were able to successfully calculate the answer, and almost all failed to come up with a correct interpretation of dividing by a fraction.
This book is extremely provocative in its suggestion that U.S. teachers’ lack PUFM. According to Ma (and others whose research she quotes) U.S. teachers teach procedurally, not conceptually. However, students should not view elementary mathematics as "¼ an arbitrary collection of facts and rules in which doing mathematics means following set procedures step-by-step to arrive at answers." Not only must students and teachers know the "how" of mathematics, but also the "why."
As math teachers, it’s important to read this book and evaluate our own understandings. It also seems important to include discussions of these issues in each of our districts as we review new standards in mathematics. Ma’s research is compelling, and we should pay careful attention to her findings and their implications for our profession.

Ma, Liping, Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics: Teachers’ Understanding of Fundamental Mathematics in China and the United States, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers, Mahwah, New Jersey, 1999.

The Learning Gap--Stevenson and Stigler

Stevenson, H., & Stigler, J. W. (1994). The Learning Gap: Why Our Schools are Failing and What We Can Learn from Japanese and Chinese Education. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Another recommended reading along the same lines and very much related to the TIMSS study is the work of Stevenson and Stigler comparing eastern and western education systems.

A seminal work is "The Learning Gap: Why our schools are failing and what we can learn from Japanese and Chinese education"

In this work eastern education systems are really painted in a very favorable light. they can do no wrong. while almost all the points made in this book resonate powerfully for me it also makes me ponder the romanicism many of us, myself very much included, have for eastern education systems. i guess they do really do many things right.

In this book they also note the value of comparative studies in order "to make the familiar strange"...

"Having compared teaching, parenting, learning and academic achievement in several very different cultures, we found the most exciting revelations not in what we discovered in Asia, but in what was revealed in the United States. Despite the fact that we have spent all our lives in this country, we, as is likely true of most Americans have never really understood the consequences of many American beliefs, attitudes and practices until we began our studies in Asia...we have experienced the thrill--and the distress--of discovering new attributes of our culture." p. 17

even in this book written over a decade ago Stevenson and Stigler point out the lament of the Japanese and the Chinese that their education does not foster enough creativity, and is too competitive. I guess not much has changed!

"Although the United States is among the countries expending the highest proportion of their gross national product on education, our elementary and secondary school students never place above the median in comparative studies of academic achievement." p. 26

they argue that most people are not aware of "the academic weakness of our nation's children"

they quote an excerpt from the National Research Council's report "Everybody Counts"

"Avearge students in other countries often learn as much mathematics as teh best students learn in the United States. Data from the Second International Mathematics Study show that the preformance of the top 5 percent of US students is matched by the top 50 percent of students in Japan. Our very best students--the top 1 percent--scored lowest of the top 1 percent in all participating countries." p. 31

In Stevenson and Stigler's study they also found a striking achievement gap in mathematics between elementary school students in Japan, Taiwan, China (Beijing) and the US. they also showed the gap widened throughout the elementary school years.

They propose several explanations for the gap:
longer school days and school years in Asian schools, teacher looping, centrality of children's schooling as a focus in teh home environment, amount of homework, the availability of workbooks that correspond to the textbooks, chidlren's magazines, the explicit teaching of classroom routines, collective emphasis of classroom activities vs. loneliness and isolation, length and frequency of recess.

they consider different attitudes towards childhood socialization in Japan, China and the US-- in Japan for example young childhood before school is a time of great indulgence while in the US parents feel that this is a crucial time when they should be working to prepare their children for school. once school begins the US parents turn the learning over to the school just at teh time that Japanese parents begin demanding more learning and discipline from children in teh home.

they mention modeling as an important technique of socialization in Asian society, collectivism in society, "parents remind the indolent child that failure to do well in school will bring shame to the family", explict teaching of routines.

A chapter is devoted to attitudes towards effort and ability. the authors point out the US obsession with natural ability and the converse focus on effort in asian societies. this has many implicatiosn including implications for tracking. in eastern societies young children are not tracked but are gathered together in mixed ability classrooms and also mixed ability groups.

US mothers in their samples had much lower standards by which they woudl be satisfied with their children's academic achievement.

Chapter 7 looks at the differences in organization of schooling in Japan, China and the US.

Goals of education. "The goal of education, we were told by a Japanese education official "is the reduction of individual differences among children"... while american educators place a great value on the cultivation of individual differences.

control of the curriculum: centralized vs. decentralized...they note an interesting statistic that according to 1989 Gallup Poll statitics 69 percent of american's favor a national curriculum.

they note the differentnature of textbooks and suggest that textbooks in China and Japan are less distracting, more focused and that they are sequential as opposed to the US notion of the spiral curriculum.

intriguingly they make this comment:

"since one goal of Aisan teacher is to have children learn that there are many different methods for solving problems...a common technique used by asian teachers in mathematics classes is to have children present as many different solutions to a problem as possible and then to have the class discuss which methods are the most efficient and why." p. 141

however they also emphasize the importance of textbook mastery in asian classrooms as well:

"the influence of textbooks on educational practices depends on how exhaustively their content is used by teachers. one gets the impression that few American teachers excpect to cover all aspects of every chapter in the textbook. not only are large sections within chapters skipped, but the teacher may omit whole chapters. this is not the case in Chinese and Japanese classrooms. Textbooks that contain short lessons, a limited number of practice problems, and practically no ancillary material make it possible for the class to cover every detail contained in every textbook. through notes taken in class, class excercises, and homework, every child will have had to attend to every word, every problem, and every exercise in the textbook used during elementary school." p. 141.

the authors note the predominance of teachers leading the classroom activity in asian classrooms and an overabundance of language classes in US elementary schools because teachers don't like to teach math.

This is all very persuasive as to why a majority of asian children are able to achieve at higher levels than children in the US.

now how is this related to my dissertation again? Stevenson's and Stiglers' findings to some extent corroborate my findings in traditional classrooms--the heavy emphasis on textbook mastery. but they are also suggesting that there is greater emphasis on creative problem solving in asian math classes than in the u.s..

with respect to my study...it is not a comparative study... or at least it is but it is comparing traditional classrooms--i.e. supposedly teaching in classrooms before the reforms and teaching in classrooms after the reforms. but i need to somehow speak to the fact that, at least in mathematics, chinese teachers are perceived as doing very well to begin with.

Using Video Surveys to Compare Classrooms and Teaching Across Cultures--Stigler et al

With regard to my analysis of classroom practices in rural China my committee has requested that I consider the extent to which classroom practices, and particularly those in mathematics, are more creative and interactive than those in American classrooms to begin with. They recommended that I look at the TIMSS studies. This is an excellent suggestion and i have been meaning to look more at this work all along. I would love to somehow get involved in analysis of this data. I should look into how to gain some kind of affiliation.

Here is a link... it looks like all the data is available online for analysis!

http://timss.bc.edu/

perhaps i can get some of my students involved in some collaborative analysis of that.

Anyhow...back to the dissertation revisions...

This article provides some very fascinating advice on the use of video surveys to compare classrooms across cultures.

Stigler, J. W., Gallimore, R., & Hiebert, J. (2000). Using Video Surveys to Compare Classrooms and Teaching Across Cultures: Examples and Lessons From the TIMSS Video Studies. Educational Psychologist, 35(2), 87-100.

The article discusses the value of comparing classrooms across cultures: academic achievement differs across cultures, offers potential of learning more effective practices, sheds light on taken for granted practices.

the article then takes a little detour into a review of cross cultural studies in learning and development in the anthropological literature, classroom ethnography (cites Cazden and Erickson as early researchers studing classrooms as cultural contexts), the history of International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) which started survey work to compare academic achievement across cultures. IEA was aiming for an integration of qualitative and quantitative approaches and thus the "video survey was born"...

there is an explanation of the probability sampling method, and also a list of the advantages and limitations of the video survey.

the writers then provide two examples for analysis: the TIMSS video study and the TIMSS-R video study.

in the study of eighth grade mathematics classrooms in Japan, Germany and the US the researchers found that in Germany and Japan students were more likely to be asked to develop procedures themselves as opposed to in the US where teachers would teach the students the procedures...also in Japan a higher proportion of seatwork was reserved for application and invetion than in germany or in the US.

this article is an excellent example of mixed methods... see page 95 regarding the extent to which both quant and qual research reinforce each other.

there is also a discussion of various iterative characteristics of their coding and analysis from bottom up and top down approaches and the continual reevaluation of coding and analysis.