ABSTRACT
Australian educational administration borrowed its theoretical framework from North America, where professional status was much better established. Greenfield’s work represents a vital link in the chain of theory development in educational administration. Advocates of critical theory in educational administration do not share identical theoretical commitments and assumptions with the cultural perspective, but they do agree with the first two premises that characterise Greenfield’s subjectivism and which are also accepted in cultural theory. The theory development in educational administration made it clear that, departing from the Theory Movement, all major alternatives are in opposition to a science of administration. The science of administration, to the extent that it is based on a positivistic methodology that does not incorporate qualitative understandings, furthers the goals of a technocratic administration. Positivism is a subject of concern for both administration and critical theory and relates closely to the distinction between purposive-rational action and communicative interaction.
