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Ontological Issues in Educational Administration: The Ontological Status of Educational Organizations

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Encyclopedia of Educational Philosophy and Theory

Introduction

This entry aims to elucidate some of the ontological assumptions, questions, and debates that have emerged in the field of education and, more specifically, educational administration. Ontology, in its most basic formulation, has been defined as the study of “being,” namely, the nature, constitution, and manifestation of reality. This entry examines one salient example of this type of inquiry in the field of educational administration: the question about the ontological status of educational organizations.

From its very beginnings, educational administration, as a field of study, has been concerned with questions about “being,” particularly regarding the nature and constitution of “reality” in educational organizations. Oplatka (2009) indicated that while theoretical tensions, conversations, and debates in the literature are diverse, they are necessary in order to critically interrogate the questions, problems, areas, and objects of study of researchers and practitioners...

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Correspondence to Augusto Riveros .

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Riveros, A., Newton, P. (2017). Ontological Issues in Educational Administration: The Ontological Status of Educational Organizations. In: Peters, M.A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Educational Philosophy and Theory. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-588-4_284

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