Postmodernism:

More than a
Paradigm Shift
Cheantel Adams
EDUL 7043 (PhD Course) by
Organizational Development
William Allan Kritsonis, PhD
What is it that are Beliefs are
Based Upon?
MODERNISM
Accepted educational belief system
based on the use of scientific method
to gather data, develop theories that
are testable, and proving and
disproving those theories
 What is it that are Beliefs are
Based Upon?
Modernism
Embraces the tenets of reason and
logic as paramount virtues based on
the assumption that reality is as it is
perceived
 What is it that are Beliefs are
Based Upon?
Modernism
Human language is a clear window
through which we observe the world
 What is it that our Beliefs are
Based Upon?
Modernism
Context is not important and that the
purpose of science is to engage in a
search for general laws that are
exclusive of specific contexts
 What is it that our beliefs are
Based Upon?
Modernism
Logic should guide a search for truth
 What is it that our Beliefs are
Based Upon?
Modernism
Truth is discerned by its
correspondence to the world we
see and that what is true controls
and predicts what happens in this
world.
 What is it that our Beliefs are
Based Upon?
The grand narrative of modernism
holds that :
There is a single unitary field
comprising all that is worth knowing,
defined by the rules of science and is
correct and total by definition.
Changes in the field result in re-
centering various processes or
models that are judged to be correct.
 The Evolution of the
Paradigm Shift
An attempt to identify the a-
rational aspects of truth seeking in
the mainstream.
Historical Examples
Pasteur falsified experiments to
advance his own theories.
Fraud plagiarized the work of his
friend which lead to their break up as
a team of scientific investigators.
 Modernism
The concept of a paradigm is a
product of modernistic science in
which the traditions of rationalism
and the idea of one agenda at a time
is presented as a metaphor for
scientific history.
 Continuing Down This Road Will
Lead Educators To
1. Severely reduce the number of possibilities
in any given situation because they do not
conform to our idea of change process
2. Falsely identify mutations as fundamental
change (paradigm shifts)
3. Abandon or delegitimize real change
because it does not conform to our
paradigm
4. Fail to recognize that real change has
eluded us as we settle for more of the
same by a different name
 Best Practice
The concept of best practice is
equivalent to Taylors one best way
method determined not by teachers
but by the experts.
 There has been no paradigm
shift in educational
administration.
All that has transpired is a mutated centre within scientific
modernism in a variety of forms.

The easiest way to recognize

this is to adopt postmodern
view of the field.
 Postmodernism
Postmodernism moves us from the
idea of considering one paradigm at
a time to competing paradigms being
considered simultaneously.
Postmodernism challenges the belief
in a dominant centre sharing
common scientific assumptions.
 Thinking the Unthinkable
Remove the boundaries of the
paradigm and create competing
fields.
Stop labeling alternatives such as
postmodernism as undesirable trends
because they threaten basic
assumptions.
 Closing
As long as we insist that only one
field is possible and that it is defined
by modernistic science, we will
continue to substitute paradigm
shifts for genuine conceptual
change.
We will not likely encounter any real
breakthroughs unless we
reconceptualize educational
administration as competing fields
 Closing
Employ truly multi-paradigmic
approaches in a wide variety of
forms of inquiry.
No longer look for paradigm shifts
by erasing the assumption of
paradigms and fields.