Archeology of Epistemic Crisis in Educational Administration

Abstract

The purpose of the present study is to set up the causes and effects of the epistemic crisis in educational administration. Consistent with this purpose the history of the educational administration was divided into three eras. In the first era, the emergence of educational administration in the USA and the contributions of scholars to the field were evaluated. In the second era, epistemological and methodological bases of the theory movement that assumes logical positivism as the legitimate way of producing knowledge were questioned. In the third era, post-positivist, neo-Marxist and postmodern thinkers’ views that opposed to theory movement in 1970s were considered. At the end of the analysis it was seen that the field failed to develop its authentic conceptual and theoretical tools in the first era. In the second era in which theory movement dominated the field, it was observed that the value domain was excluded in educational administration studies and the field was faced with legitimacy crisis. It was understood that the educational administration was turned to an intellectual battle field in the third era in which the theoretical bases of theory movement were criticized. Based on the analysis it was concluded that the field of educational administration has encountered epistemic crisis since the beginning years and the effects of the crisis has continued till present time.