The Practical Promise of Critical Research in Educational Administration

Abstract

This article asks why critical approaches to educational administration, and critical research in general, have so rarely moved beyond critique to the Tran formative process that is supposed to be central to a critical theory. It suggests that there are important methodological reasons for this failure, in that much critical research is incompatible with what we knew about motivating and sustaining a complex change process. The argument is developed by briefly reviewing two phases of critical research in education, describing what is meant by the effectiveness of critical research and then drawing on social psychological research to identify those features of research which enhance its probability of effectiveness. The implications of a critical researcher's treatment of agency, motivation, and resistance are discussed4 and suggestions made throughout the article for how the effectiveness of critical research can be increased.