Tamaño de fuente: 

In the long 19th century, classrooms across the USA were gradually reorganized according to the newly emerged standard of age-grading. This grouping method employed chronological age as the sole category of allocating school children, consciously departing from earlier classroom management principles that focused on pupils’ skill levels or moral aspects (Cuban 1984; Vinovskis, Angus & Mirel 1995). The shift to an age-graded classroom marks a turning point in the organization of school systems (Tyack 1974). In this context, homogenization was regarded as a means of creating a more efficient, economic, competitive and accountable school system as a prerequisite for the standardization of curricular content and educational procedures. Uncertainties produced by a lack of grouping procedures were replaced by fixed principles of sorting children and thus can be interpreted as simplifying the teachers’ role and allotting them more time for the pedagogical aspects of their work. Therefore, the paper argues that the introduction of new bureaucratic paradigms was interpreted as fostering an “emancipation” of teachers and pupils from “uncertainties” on the basis of educational homogenization. I will analyze a sample of teachers’ manuals written by school reformers and administrators following two main aspects: Firstly, the uncertainties that are identified as presumed challenges pertaining to agents that participate in and shape educational processes (e.g. teachers, pupils, parents and (local) government representatives) are examined. Secondly, the recommendations and proposed strategies to overcome these uncertainties are compared and evaluated in terms of their impact on subsequent bureaucratic implementation. With regard to current educational debates, e.g. concerning equality, the paper contributes to examinations of the role assumed by school administrations in the implementation of bureaucratic solutions.