The Postmodern Challenge to the Theory

and Practice of Educational

Administration
by Fenwick English

James D. Laub
EDUL 7073 (PhD Course) by
William Allan Kritsonis,
PhD
PVAMU/The Texas A&M University
System
Definitions Part I

Antitent Feeling or showing little concern or motivation, to set

something against something else.
Aporia untranslatable meanings or gaps, hidden borders and
boundaries that are imprecise, a figure of speech in which the speaker
expresses or purports to be in doubt about a question, an insoluble
contradiction or paradox in a text's meanings.
Apostrophic act of turning away, the addressing of a usually
absent person or a usually personified thing rhetorically in the course
of a speech or composition
Atheoritical profiles no theory to center any specific practice, but
rather is open to consider all claims and the theories which may define
and support them.
Definitions Part I (continued)
Cathexis is the libidos charge of energy - often described the
functioning of psychosexual energies in mechanical terms, influenced
perhaps by the dominance of the steam engine at the end of the
nineteenth century
Certitude a claim, posture or practice that rests upon one method,
one model or one idea of a singular, universal truth, the state of being
certain; complete assurance; confidence, sureness of occurrence or
result; inevitability, something that is assured or unfailing
Hegemony influence or authority over others: domination, a
journey undertaken to escape from a dangerous or undesirable
situation; exodus, the predominant influence, as of a state, region, or
group, over another or others
Hermeneutics the study of the theory and methodological
principles of interpretation, especially of scriptural text.
Definitions - Part I (continued)

Interiority deals with the mind, motivation and inner life of a human
being, relating to, or located on the inside, relating to one's mental or
spiritual being.
Logocentrism structuralist method of analysis, especially of
literary works, that focuses upon words and language to the exclusion
of non-linguistic matters, such as an author's individuality or historical
context. Excessive attention paid to the meanings of words or
distinctions in their usage
Mountebanks Opera about the story of people drinking a potion to
make them actually become the characters they are pretending to be.
Panoply a splendid or striking array, ceremonial attire with all
accessories, something that covers and protects: the complete arms
and armor of a warrior.
Definitions - Part I (continued)

Phlogiston of, relating to, or inducing inflammation or fever;

inflammatory, a hypothetical substance formerly thought to be a
volatile constituent of all combustible substances, released as flame in
combustion
Satyagraha the policy of nonviolent resistance initiated in India by
Mahatma Gandhi as a means of pressing for political reform
Strophes the first of a pair of stanzas of alternating form on which
the structure of a given poem is based, a stanza containing irregular
lines, the first division of the triad constituting a section of a Pindaric
ode, the first movement of the chorus in classical Greek drama while
turning from one side of the orchestra to the other.
Tautology needless repetition of the same sense in different words;
redundancy, an instance of such repetition, an empty or vacuous
statement composed of simpler statements in a fashion that makes it
logically true whether the simpler statements are factually true or false.
 Postmodernism

Open to consider all claims and theories,

do not necessarily replace existing
theories but challenge existing
boundaries
Always options, possibilities and
probabilities
Systematic improvement not status
quo
 Postmodernism

Truth is lost in the politics of consensus

Decisions should fit the context, not a
standard cookie cutter approach
Individuality, founded in linguistics and
personal knowledge and meanings not
standard measures and assumptions
that conform to society
 Criticisms of Postmodernism
New concept that lacks boundaries and
definitions
Proposes nothing new

Intellectually barren lacks no precision

Passing fad and fashion

No solid foundation
 Existentialism

Reality is subjective, values, thoughts and

ideas are freely chosen
Individualism and individual decision making
Connect with the personal and relevant
Responsibility for ones self and ones choices
Engage your mind and energy, do not rely on
the thinking of others
 Educational Administration Theories
Taylor
Weber
Deming
Covey
Theories founded in
faddish management
trends and business
arena. 100 years of
theoretical tomfoolery
Abandon conventional
wisdom, enter the realm of
the taboo
Subjectivity
The unconscious
Values and morality
Decision making by
culture, context and time
Individuality
Creative thinking
outside the box
Thinking outside the Box

Louis Pasteur
Failed to follow standard
scientific procedures and
methods
Worked off a hunch
and common sense
Jonas Salk
Criticized by peers
Kitchen chemistry
Barry Marshall
Challenged accepted
medical knowledge
 WASP, no COWF
White
Anglo-Saxon
Protestant
Heterosexual
Male
No originality
Regurgitation
 Postmodernism ala Philip Phenix

Symbolics Synnoetics
Verbal, nonverbal, non- Personal knowledge and
discursive language meanings
Empirics Ethics
Understanding logical Values and morals, does it
patterns and forms help society
Appeal to the imagination
Synoptics
Esthetics
Subjectivity, society, and
Total student, kinesthetic, intellectual content in and
across all academic
languages, arts mind,
body and spirit disciplines
Postmodernism ala James Laub