Alienation in educational organizations and its’ management

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to study the alienation in educational organizations carefully and to call attention to this subject which was studied insufficiently. Descriptive method was used in the study. The concept of alienation was brought up with philosophical and sociological principals and then common inferences about the educational organizations were made within the help of studies which were about the alienation in educational institutions. Hegel was the first to consider the fact of “alienation” philosophically in his book “Phenomenology of Spirit  ”. To Hegel human history is also the history of human being’s becoming alienated to himself. After Hegel, Ludwig Feuerbach considered this fact in his book “Essence of Christianity” in 1841. According to Marx, alienation is a compulsory phase that development of human being must have. Marx emphasizes that in capitalist society which is named as modern society man with his labor in production relations becomes alienated to his labor, then to his social relationships, and finally to himself. In his opinion, man is desired to pull in to the consumption helical that is obstinately insisted as necessity. In this way, consumption and dissatisfaction are two elements which set off and product each other. Alienation is deterioration and decay conceit of human existence’s natural, social, psychological and cultural dimensions. It is human being’s separating from each other and becoming alienated to each other. In this respect, alienation means that man survives by becoming distant to himself, to the product he produces, to his natural, social, psychological and cultural environment but under the control of their dominance and decisiveness. Seeman distinguishes alienation into five; Powerlessness, Meaninglessness, Normlessness, Isolation and self-estrangement. The studies that are made in educational organizations about alienation focus on alienation of teacher and student. There are different approaches in the studies about student’s alienation. Some researches consider that school atmosphere is an important reason for the alienation of youngsters. And they say that this alienating atmosphere creates some aberrational attitudes like suicide, discipline problems and drinking alcohol to excess habitually. Some other researchers believe that the origin of alienation and aberrational attitudes is at home and is related to the environment and that school increases those. Significant relations were found between alienation and anger in some researches. Due to the studies about teachers’ alienation in educational organizations, teachers, generally experience mostly powerlessness, then being isolated and becoming alienation to school. There is a meaningful relation between bureaucratic structure of the school and powerlessness. Besides, the findings that there is less alienation of the teachers who worked over 25 years, attract attention. The meaninglessness, powerlessness levels of primary school teachers are found less than branch teachers and this finding could be understood clearly. There are studies showing that alienation emerges with the effect of environmental factors but through the qualifications of the school and that it increases on the condition of becoming distant from the individual’s participation. In order to manage alienation in the educational organizations, it is necessary to establish pre-warning system, develop policies about alienation, reduce the negatives of bureaucracy, m303anage conflicts, increase motivation, reduce Uncertainty and ensure participation to management.