To assume leadership roles, beginning teachers need to develop an informed understanding of how they can operate effectively as decision-makers and agents of change within educational institutions. Such understandiing entails knowledge of the politics, history, organization, and function of schools from a variety of viewpoints: historical, sociologoical, political, and cross-cultural. This course focuses on the structure of public education, on the nature of educational change, and the teacher's role in the change process.