Building new bridges: Linking organization theory with other educational literatures

Purpose - This paper provides an example of how organization theory can be linked with other literatures in a complementary and productive manner. Establishing a bridge between the organization theory and learning environment literatures, the authors seek to provide an example of how such literature-bridging can enrich our understanding of the school-classroom relationship. Design/methodology/approach - After providing a set of working criteria with which to assess the developmental maturity of a field, this paper provides a general review of the learning environments literature. This is followed by an examination of an important yet under-explored relationship in this literature: the school-classroom relationship. Using concepts from organizational theory, the authors seek to establish the utility these concepts have for understanding the relationship that exists between classroom- and school-level learning environments. Findings - Given the importance of organization theory to our understanding of educational organizations and the increased absence of a substantive organizational perspective from our dialogue, there is a need to build and/or re-establish bridges between organization theory and other lines of inquiry in education. Teaching and learning occur in an organizational context. Thus it is important that this context be considered by educational researchers. The time has also come to aggressively link the study of learning environments with literatures such as organization theory. Originality/value - This paper provides an example of how literature-bridging can be used to encourage and enrich dialogue between separate yet complementary lines of inquiry. It also sheds light on the relationship shared between the classroom and larger school.