This paper provides a philosophical and methodological analysis which aims to support research on social justice in educational organizations. It traces a path from Thomas Greenfield’s ethical formulations to the moral philosophy of Jurgen Habermas and does so in order to query the ethical implications of following Greenfield in imagining educational organizations as ‘moral orders’. It argues that such a metaphor is problematic for guiding research with a social justice focus because it does not adequately conceive its own ethical basis, and thus cannot address (or redress) moral authority in organization. It claims that Greenfield’s metaphor requires substantial revision, such that organizations are better regarded as moral communities. The implications of this revised metaphor are discussed with respect to a variety of key issues in educational administration and research.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Benhabib, S.
(1995) ‘The Debate over Women and Moral Theory Revisited’, in J. Meehan (ed.) Feminists Read Habermas: Gendering the Subject of Discourse, pp. 181–204. New York: Routledge.
2.
Braaten, J.
(1995) ‘From Communicative Rationality to Communicative Thinking: A Basis for Feminist Theory and Practice’, in J. Meehan (ed.) Feminists Read Habermas: Gendering the Subject of Discourse, pp. 139–162. New York: Routledge.
3.
Bernstein, J.M.
(1995) Recovering Ethical Life: Jurgen Habermas and the Future of Critical Theory. London: Routledge.
4.
Clement, G.
(1989) ‘Is the Moral Point of View Monological or Dialogical?’, Philosophy Today (Spring): 159–173.
5.
Cohen, J.L.
(1995) ‘Critical Social Theory and Feminist Critiques: The Debate with Jurgen Habermas’, in J. Meehan (ed.) Feminists Read Habermas: Gendering the Subject of Discourse, pp. 57–90. New York: Routledge.
6.
Dean, J.
(1995) ‘Discourse in Different Voices’, in J. Meehan (ed.) FeministsRead Habermas: Gendering the Subject of Discourse, pp. 205–230. New York: Routledge.
7.
Foster, W.P.
(1986) Paradigms and Promises: New Approaches to Educational Administration. Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books.
8.
Gilligan, C.
(1982) In a Different Voice.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
9.
Gilligan, C.
and Murphy, J.M. (1980) ‘Moral Development in Late Adolescence and Adulthood: A Critique and Reconstruction of Kohlberg’s Theory’, Human Development23: 77–104.
10.
Greenfield, T.B.
(1979) ‘Ideas versus Data: How Can the Data Speak for Themselves?’, in G.L.Immegart and W.L. Boyd (eds) Problem-Finding in Educational Administration, pp. 167–190. Lexington, MA: DC Heartland Company.
11.
Greenfield, T.B.
(1993a) ‘The Man Who Comes Back through the Door in the Wall’, in T. Greenfield. and P. Ribbins (eds) Greenfield on Educational Administration: Towards A Humane Science, pp. 92–121. New York: Routledge.
12.
Greenfield, T.B.
(1993b) ‘The Decline and Fall of Science in Educational Administration’, in T. Greenfield and P. Ribbins (eds) Greenfield on Educational Administration: Towards a Humane Science, pp. 134–161. New York: Routledge.
13.
Greenfield, T.B.
(1993c) ‘Science and Service’, in T. Greenfield and P. Ribbins (eds) Greenfield on Educational Administration: Towards a Humane Science, pp. 199–228. New York: Routledge.
14.
Greenfield, T.B.
and Ribbins, P. (1993) ‘Educational Administration as a Human Science’, in T. Greenfield and P. Ribbins (eds) Greenfield on Educational Administration: Towards a Humane Science, pp. 229–271. New York: Routledge.
15.
Guba, E.
and Lincoln, S. (1994) ‘Competing Paradigms in Qualitative Research’, in N. Denzin (ed.) The Handbook of Qualitative Research, pp. 105–117. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
16.
Habermas, J.
(1971) Knowledge and Human Interests. Boston: Beacon Press.
17.
Habermas, J.
(1984) The Theory of Communicative Action, vol. 1, tr. T. McCarthy. Boston, MA: Beacon Press (original published in 1980).
18.
Habermas, J.
(1990) Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action.Cambridge: Polity Press.
19.
Harris, C.E.
(1996) ‘The Aesthetic of Thomas B. Greenfield: An Exploration of Practices that Leave No Mark’, Education Administration Quarterly32(4): 487–512.
20.
Held, V.
(1993) Feminist Morality: Transforming Culture, Society and Politics.Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
21.
Hodgkinson, C.
(1991) Educational Leadership: The Moral Art. Albany: SUNY Press.
22.
Hodgkinson, C.
(1983) The Philosophy of Leadership. Oxford: Blackwell.
23.
Hodgkinson, C.
(1996) Administrative Philosophy: Values and Motivations in Administrative Life. Oxford: Elsevier Science.
24.
Horkheimer, M.
and Adorno, T. (1993) Dialectic of enlightenment, tr. J. Cumming. New York: Continuum (original published in 1944).
25.
Kohlberg, L.
(1981) Essays on Moral Development, vol. 1. San Francisco: Harper & Row.
26.
McCarthy, T.
(1994) ‘Kantian Constructivism and Reconstructivism: Rawls and Habermas in Dialogue’, Ethics105: 44–63.
27.
McLuhan, M.
(1964) Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man.New York: Signet.
28.
Meehan, J.
(1995) ‘Introduction’, in J. Meehan (ed.) Feminists Read Habermas:Gendering the Subject of Discourse, pp. 1–20. New York: Routledge.
29.
Moon, D.J.
(1995) ‘Practical Discourse and Communicative Ethics’, in S.K. White (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Habermas, pp. 143–166. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Oakley, A.
(1981) ‘Interviewing Women: A Contradiction in Terms’, in H. Roberts (ed.) Doing Feminist Research, pp. 30–61. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
32.
Outhwaite, W.
(1994) Habermas: A Critical Introduction. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
33.
Sergiovanni, T.J.
(1992) Moral Leadership: Getting to the Heart of School Improvement. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
34.
Seidman, S.
(1998) Contested Knowledge: Social Theory in the Postmodern Era. Oxford: Blackwell.
35.
Sergiovanni, T.J.
(2000) The Lifeworld of Leadership: Creating Culture, Community, and Personal Meaning in our Schools. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
36.
Warnke, G.
(1997) ‘Communicative Rationality and Cultural Values’, in S.K. White(ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Habermas, pp. 120–142. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
37.
Warnock, M.
(1998) An Intelligent Person’s Guide to Ethics.London: Duckworth and Co.
38.
Weber, M.
(1968) Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology, vol. 1, ed. R. Gunter and C. Wittich. New York: Bedminster Press.
39.
Yeatman, A.
(1994) Postmodern Revisionings of the Political. New York: Routledge.
