Philosophical Reflections on Science in Educational Administration.

This paper is a relatively non-technical report on a rather large research project that I have been conducting over the last twelve years, or so, in collaboration with Professor G. Lakomski of the University of Melbourne. The project has been a systematic attempt to develop a new conceptual framework for dealing with the central themes of educational administration. Three features of work in progress -- now written up in three books, and discussed in three special issues of different educational administration journals -- will be covered: (1) the nature of administrative theory; (2) an account of administrative practice; (3) consequences of the first two features for theorizing and doing educational administration. The research reported here is of an ongoing attempt to develop a notion of theory that will be satisfactory for conceptualizing educational administration as a science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]