Doctoral Study in Challenging Times: Entrenching Banality or Revitalising Prospects for ‘Wicked’ Intellectual Work. The Case of Educational Administration ^☆

A generic term is used here to refer to the advanced study of educational administration, management and leadership.

Abstract

Purpose

This chapter provides a retrospective and prospective exploration of some of the challenges faced by doctoral education, specifically as they relate to advanced studies of educational administration (EA).

Methodology

It applies a critical stance to the current status of knowledge in the ‘leadership field’ and the intellectual underpinnings that inform the studies available as reference for doctoral students.

Findings

Nested within wider changing conditions for university and doctoral education, it is argued that the published field as currently constituted suffers from both banal and ‘non-wicked’ leadership orthodoxies that might lead to doctoral stagnation.

Practical implications

Reasons are suggested and prospects considered for revitalising scholarship for the upcoming generation of EA alumni, scholars and practitioners.

Citation

Morrison, M. (2014), "Doctoral Study in Challenging Times: Entrenching Banality or Revitalising Prospects for ‘Wicked’ Intellectual Work. The Case of Educational Administration ^☆

A generic term is used here to refer to the advanced study of educational administration, management and leadership.

", Investing in our Education: Leading, Learning, Researching and the Doctorate (International Perspectives on Higher Education Research, Vol. 13), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 31-57. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-362820140000013002