LET'S CHOOSE EVERYTHING: A RESPONSE TO “THE THEORY PROBLEM”
| Published date | 01 January 1979 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb009809 |
| Date | 01 January 1979 |
| Pages | 87-91 |
| Author | HELEN M. SUNGAILA |
| Subject Matter | Education |
THE JOURNAL
OF
EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION
VOLUME XVII, NUMBER
1
MAY, 1979
LET'S CHOOSE EVERYTHING:
A RESPONSE TO "THE THEORY PROBLEM"
HELEN M. SUNGAILA
This paper is a response to Riffel's "The Theory Problem in Educational
Administration" published in the October 1978 issue of the Journal. article seeks
to establish that perhaps we really do not have to make "illumined choices" as Riffel
insists, because neither the phenomenological style of inquiry nor theory generation
nor hermeneutic and critical science exists well without the others. To pose their con-
tradiction stylistically should not be construed as an imperative to choose among them,
but rather to recognize and strengthen their dialectic.
Let's be innocent and playful as Riffel has suggested in his recent
article on the theory problem,1 and suppose for the moment that the only
problem with "the theory problem" is that we ever thought it was a
problem in the first place, and have kept on thinking, talking and writing
about it as such for the past twenty-five years! Let's be a good deal more
serious, too, and suggest that only time will tell whether it was less
reprehensive for the pioneers of the study of educational administration
to borrow their conceptual orientations, concepts and theories from other
social scientists, than for us to continue, equally uncritically, to be pre-
occupied with the theory problem, and worse, to borrow shamelessly from
so-called "phenomenological sociology", thereby compounding "the
theory problem" further.
THE PLACE OF "THE PHENOMENOLOGICAL STYLE"?
Should a "phenomenological style" of inquiry be construed in terms of
its replacing "the dominant orientation"2 in educational administration,
though certain sociologists have no doubt sought such a place for it in
sociology? Should it be regarded as an alternative conceptual orientation
to structural-functionalism, though sociologists do this too?3
Should it be presented as distinct from hermeneutic and critical
science,4 if sociologists do claim that it is? But, perhaps most importantly,
should its merits be debated in terms of its promoting "the broadened
views of
science,
scientific work and theory"5 which Riffel has suggested
educational administration as a field of study needs.
Why not? Simply because no matter how some sociologists might
understand it, phenomenological inquiry, while being systematic,
HELEN M. SUNGAILA is Lecturer in the Centre for Administrative Studies, University
of New England. She holds the degrees of B.Sc.(Melb.), M.Ed.Admin.(Hons.) and
Ph.D.(U.N.E.). Dr. Sungaila is particularly interested in the development of
phenomenological research.
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