Reflections on the use of theory as a means for improving research and practice in educational administration

Editor's Note. A decade ago (August 1960), John Ramseyer prepared this paper which was read at a general session of the National Conference of Professors of Educational Administration meeting in Macomb, Illinois. This paper was part of a program dealing with Administrative Theory and Human Values. John Ramseyer was among those who saw that the science of educational administration was beset with problems which had plagued other sciences in their infancy. A major problem was the development of theoretical structures which assured an optimum measure of objectivity and that precluded personal and public dogma. Theoreticians of educational administration, constrained on the one hand by a practice-oriented profession, were attracted on the other hand to the objectivity claimed by behaviorists and logical positivists. Professor Ramseyer suggested ways of dealing with human values in administrative theory without sacrificing either the scientific or the practical aspects of administration. Although this paper was generated to include the study and practice of elementary and secondary educational administration as well as higher education, its message is particularized enough for consideration by those whose primary concern is higher education. Furthermore, the timeliness of these remarks suggests the unusual capabilities of John Ramseyer for looking ahead across the decades

Administration (probate law · Education theory · Educational research · Higher education · Mathematics education · Pedagogy · Political science · Sociology · Education and Teacher Training · Educational Assessment and Improvement · Psychology · Teacher Education and Leadership Studies

• Administration and Policy-Making in Education

  W O Lester Smith, John Walton et al.•British Journal of Educational…•1960

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