Teaching and Research in Educational Administration
| Date | 01 January 1964 |
| Pages | 9-22 |
| Published date | 01 January 1964 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb009576 |
| Author | W.G. WALKER |
| Subject Matter | Education |
THE JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION 9
VOLUME II. NUMBER 1 MAY. 1964
Teaching and Research
in Educational Administration
W. G. WALKER
(Based on a paper presented to the Seminar on Administrative Studies in the
Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University, August,
1963.)
The administrative revolution has barely touched the schools of
Australia. One reason for this is the preoccupation with teach-
ing of those who should be administering. Although schools pre-
sent remarkable opportunities for staff involvement, "the power of
the group" is rarely released. The post-graduate courses in edu-
cational administration offered by the University of New Eng-
land seek to challenge the administrator to look beyond the
confines of his own experience, to recognize the powers inherent
in group activity and to accept the existence of a discipline of
administration. These goals are sought through the teaching of
foundation and professional courses in which theoretical and
comparative aspects of the discipline are emphasised. There is a
marked paucity of research in educational administration. Ad-
ministration is still largely a pragmatic process and it is likely
to remain so until those teaching and researching in the area
can clearly identify and organize in logical manner the content
of the discipline and arrive at a common language to describe
administrative behaviour.
The administrative revolution is only now beginning to in-
fluence the schools of Australia. A sexagenarian teacher, re-
turning from abroad and visiting a public high school for the
first time in forty years, would probably observe little to distin-
guish it as an administrative unit from the high school in which
he taught in his youth.
If the visitor arrived at morning tea time he would not be sur-
prised to observe that the headmaster and his deputy drink
their tea in regal isolation while the remainder of the staff re-
tire to departmental staff rooms which appear to be distributed
geographically in such a way as to inhibit any tendency towards
that informal institution-wide communication which such a large,
complex organization would seem to demand.
DR. W. G. WALKER is Senior Lecturer in Education at the University of
New England. He has taught in New South Wales public schools and teachers'
colleges and he holds the degrees of M.A. with honours in Education of the
University of Sydney and Ph.D. of the University of Illinois. Dr. Walker has
published several journal articles and is co-author of Peter Board and Head-
masters for Better Schools. During 1956-58, he was on the staff of the University
of Illinois Bureau of Educational Research, and in 1958-59, he received a
Carnegie Travel Grant to permit a study of educational administration in
Canada, U.S.A. and Great Britain. He is a member of Phi Delta Kappa and of
the Australian College of Education.
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