Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

Practitioners and some theorists do not regard philosophical thought as important for the ethical aspect of educational leadership. Although other theorists have held that philosophical thought is of practical value in dealing with the normative matters of educational leadership, they have neither identified the key feature of philosophical thinking nor specified any philosophical ideas for such thinking. Seeking to avoid these difficulties, this inquiry attempts to show the practical value of a philosophical approach to the judgmental affairs of educational leadership. It analyzes philosophical thinking as a kind of questioning and maintains that practitioners are logically committed to certain moral principles, namely, the norms of moral agency. It concludes by explaining that a philosophical approach to judgments in educational leadership is practical reasoning in its fully developed form

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Aristotle (1961). he metaphysics (H. Tredennick, Trans.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Barker, S. (1964). The philosophy of mathematics. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Beck, L. G. (1994). Reclaiming educational administration as a caring profession. New York: Teachers College Press.

Bottery, M. (1992). The ethics of educational management. London: Cassell Educational Ltd.

Burbules, N. C. (1989). Issues and trends in the philosophy of education.Educational Administration Quarterly, 25, 229-252.

Cistone, P. J. (1989). School-based management/shared decision making: Perestroika in educational governance.Education and urban society, 20, 363-366.

Descartes, R. (1955). Descartes: Selections ( R. M. Eaton , Ed.). New York: Scribner.

Dewey, J. (1938). Logic: The theory of inquiry. New York: Henry Holt.

Foster, W. (1986). Paradigms and promises: New approaches to educational administration. Buffalo, NY: Prometheus.

10.

Frnkena, W. K. (1963). Ethics. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

11.

Gewirth, A. (1978). Reason and morality. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

12.

Heidegger, M. (1954). What is metaphysics? In J. L. Jarrett & S. M. McMurrin (Eds.), Contemporary philosophy: A book of readings. New York: Henry Holt.

13.

Heslep, R. D. (1995). Moral education for Americans. Westport, CN: Praeger.

14.

Hodgkinson, C. (1991). Educational leadership: The moral art. Albany: State University of New York Press.

15.

Macmillan, C.J.B. , & Garrison, J. W. (1988). A logical theory of teaching: Erotetics and intentionality. Boston: Kluwer.

16.

Mason, S. F. (1962). A history of the sciences. New York: Collier.

17.

Maxcy, S. J. (1991). Educational leadership: A critical pragmatic perspective. Westport, CN: Bergin & Garvey.

18.

McKeon, R. P. (1951). Philosophy and method.Journal of philosophy, 48(2), 353-382.

19.

McKeon, R. P. (1957). General introduction. In R. P. McKeon (Ed.), Selections from medieval philosophers (Vol. 1, pp. ix-xx). New York: Scribner.

20.

Meyer, M. (Ed. and Trans.). (1992). The gospel of St. Thomas: The hidden sayings of Jesus. San Francisco: Harper.

21.

Miron, L. F. , & Elliott, R. J. (1994). Moral leadership in a poststructural era. In S. J. Maxcy (Ed.), Postmodern school leadership: Meeting the crisis in educational administration (pp. 133-140). Albany: State University of New York Press.

22.

Powers, D. R. & Powers, M. F. (1983). Making participatory management work: Leadership of consultive decision making in academic administration. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

23.

Ryan, A. (1994). Do we overstate the importance of leadership? The Wilson Quarterly, 18 (Spring), 55-64.

24.

Searle, J. R. (1995). The construction of social reality. New York: Free Press.

25.

Sergiovanni, T. J. (1990). Value-added leadership: How to get extraordinary performance in schools. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

26.

Smith, P. G. (1956). Philosophic mindedness in educational administration. Columbus: Ohio State University Press.

27.

Smithson, A. (1983). Philosophic competence, educational policy and the technocratic threat to democracy.Journal of philosophy of education, 17(2), 275-284.

28.

Stogdill, R. M. (1974). Handbook of leadership: A survey of theory and research. New York: Free Press.

29.

Strike, K. A. , Haller, E. J. , & Soltis, J. F. (1988). The ethics of school administration. New York: Teachers College Press.

The Practical Value of Philosophical Thought for the Ethical Dimension of Educational Leadership

Abstract

Get full access to this article

References