The pragmatic educational administrator: 'local theory', schooling, and postmodernism reviled

Abstract

This paper questions the plausibility of using the ‘high theory’ of postmodern thought to construct a complete and lucid theory of educational administration. It is argued that problems with postmodernism's concept of power, its abandonment of the possibility of ‘truth’, the manner in which it erases the distinction between subject and author, fact and fiction, and its objection to the role of the expert in the conduct of any cultural event make the theory a doubtful candidate for the role of protagonist or hero in educational administration's various theoretical and practical dramas. In addition the paper describes a pragmatic version of administrative theory that is quite adequate for the demands of both theory and practice, and suggests that there is no reason to conclude that technical versions of administrative theory must be socially and culturally unconscious in a way that ‘high theory’ is not. An account is given also of ‘local theory’, which is characterized as an assemblage of templates and recipes that can be made useful for the various purposes of educational administration.