Understanding the Landscape of

Educational Leadership
Chapter 6

Presented by

William Allan Kritsonis, PhD

Purpose

to describe the conceptual landscape of

educational leadership, including the major
epochs of foundational writings which inform
leadership studies in the past and present.
Modernism

Modernismcontinues to dominate thought

in education and educational leadership in
particular.
Central Tenets of Modernism

I. Epochs
Pseudo-scientific
Early scientific
Behaviorism
Structuralism
Feminist & Critical Theory
Critical Race Theory
Queer Theory
Modernism

still at play in the leadership discourse of

contemporary times

is the dominate influence

largest number of scholars, writers,

researchers remain engaged
Modernisms Key Beliefs

Rationality is the best approach to promote

insight and understanding

Science represents progress

Objective and neutral

The Pseudo-scientific Epoch
Frederick W. Taylor (1856 1915)

1st premier management consultant

Was an engineer in the steel industry

Created and introduced scientific

management in 1911

one best way

Modernism

Understood that planning and doing are

different

The planner is needed to supply the doer

with direction and measurements, with the
tools of analysis and synthesis, with
methodology and with standards.
-Peter Drucher, 1974
Job De-skilling

where work tasks are separated and broken

down into smaller and smaller pieces until the
education levels required to engage in the
work are so lowered that labor costs can be
reduced.
Job De-skilling.

Job de-skilling requires:

Planners

Workers

Absolute managerial authority

 Question: What is the bottom line?

Answer: efficiency and profitability!

Question: Should education truly be run like

business?
 Scientific Management isnt scientific at all!

Mainstream American business management

Total Quality Management

(Deming, 1980s-1990s)

Strategic Planning
Total Quality Management

TQM

Aimed at reducing variability

Enhances control

Attains greater precision

Language permeates administrative texts!

The Early Scientific Epoch
Henry Fayol (1842 1925)

Called the Father of Modern Management Theory

Believed 5 primary functions of administration:

Planning Coordinating
Organizing Controlling

Commanding
(leadership)
Early Scientific Epoch
Mary Parker Tollett (1868 1933)

Developed the law of the situation

A) compromise

B) domination

C) integration - the best!

Laid ground work for organization development

Early Scientific Epoch
Chester Barnard (1886 1961)

Functions of the executive:

1. Purpose as a requisite for unifying organization

2. Establish effective communication
A. understandable
B. consistent with subordinates understanding of
organizations purpose
C. consistent with individuals own personal purposes
D. able to be carried out by the individual
The Behaviorism Epoch

Anchored by the work of Herbert Simon;

offspring of B.F. Skinner

Observable and measurable actions under the

conscious control of an individual who is
responding to stimuli in a specific situation

In line with SM and TQM

The Behaviorism Epoch

Simon rational organizational behavior

Maximizes results at the lowest cost

Casts out the human dimension

Eliminates personality as a domain

The Behaviorism Epoch

Douglas McGregor

Theory X and Theory Y

Based on an analysis of managers behaviors

in business
The Structuralism Epoch

A study of whole units or structures represents

the key to understanding individual
phenomenon (behaviors)

The Social Psychology of Organizations

Katz and Kahn (1966) combined the views of
psychologists and sociologists
The Structuralism Epoch
General Systems Theory
Ludwig von Bertalanffy

Organizations In Action
James Thompson

Structure in Fives
Mintzberg

Reframing Organizations
Bolman and Deal Frame theory
Feminist/Critical Theory Epoch
modern movement began with Betty
Friedmans The Feminist Mystique
transformations include: androgyny and
gender polarization
Kathy Fergusons The Feminist Case Against
Bureaucracy huge impact in business,
public and educational administration
Jurgen Habermas Moral Consciousness
and Communicative Action
Feminist/Critical Theory Epoch
The fundamental impact of the Feminist/Critical
Theory Epoch was a change in perspective
that encouraged women to adopt different
personas within the workplace that contrasted
with traditional, societal roles. The literature
created during this epoch also coached
women on how to overcome subservience
and gain equality by manipulating the
bureaucratic, political and social systems
within the workplace.
Critical Race Theory Epoch
Is centered on the notion that racism is
endemic in American life and exists in
educational institutions in a myriad of forms
Not individual but institutional/structural
Purpose is to end racial inequality
Recognizes the importance of historical
context and the personal accounts of
individuals who have experienced situations
that counter dominant perceptions
Critical Race Theory Epoch
Key Texts in CRT include:

Critical Race Theory: The Cutting Edge by

Richard Delgado, 1995

Toward a Critical Race Theory of Education by

Gloria Ladson-Billings and William Tate,
Teachers College Record, 1995
The Queer Theory Epoch
Challenges the social systems construction of
sexual identities and seeks to expose them as
invalid descriptors
Advances 5 perspectives:
1. Seeks to come to terms with sexual identity
2. Works to deconstruct sexual norms and practices
in institutional life
3. Is confrontational
4. Sees sexual identity as more than sexual
5. Views society as political and cultural
The Post Modern Epoch
The prevailing thought is that postmodernity has
no coherent theme, except in what it chooses
to reject.
It posits that there are no realities outside of a
persons culture and experience. Reality is
constructed, multidimensional and
multitheoretical.
Postmodernists deny the reality that anchors
modernism
The Post Modern Epoch
Jacques Derrida (1930-2004) presented the
anatomy of de-construction, a way to take
apart textual passages.
1st reading interpretation of the text
2nd reading look for contradictions, hidden
silences, binaries, and circularities in the text
The 2nd reading may offer a very different reading
of what most people think the text is about
Texts are about what is and is not said.
The Post Modern Epoch

De-construction makes it possible for

postmodernists to expose the flaws and
assumptions in modernism as irrational. Yet
postmodernism does not offer any alternative
because to do so would be to center
something in its place.
Fenwick English, 2007
Kitsch Management
Kitsch is a slang term for rubbish or trash
Have high emotional appeal usually
sentimentality
Requires no knowledge, understanding, critique
or analysis
Satisfies immediate desire
Non-challenging
Does not question socio-political reality or vested
interests
Reinforces prejudices
Kitsch Management
Avoids unpleasant conflicts
Promises a happy ending

Stephen Covey The Seven Habits of Highly

Effective People
Jim Collins Good to Great
Spencer Johnson Who Moved My Cheese?
John Maxwell The 360 Degree Leader
Larry Julian GOD Is My CEO
Kitsch Management
These texts oversimplify reality and promise a
rationality that does not exist in the real world.
Because they avoid dealing with managerial
subtleties and erase situational complexities
and conflicts, they are at their base ideologies
being passed off as codified wisdom.
- Fenwick English, 2007

Jim Collins TQM, managementspeak,

timeless principles, absolute certainty, equate
to Fantasyland
Q&A