Participation, autonomy, involvement : theory into practice

The researcher proposes that Education can base its program for administration development on a critical sociology of educational administration, aimed at restructuring educational institutions so that they respond to the needs of all groups in society. This perspective required participation, autonomy and involvement from all those engaged in schools and in the processes of cultural development. The study considers the social change theory of Jurgen Habermas, the crisis in the Australian Capital Territory education system in the early 1970s and the new participative system of educational administration commenced in 1974. The study asks the question as to whether the operation of this new system exemplified the theory of Habermas. Had a fundamental change in the structure of the system, the development of shared control and the involvement in consensus decision making solved the crisis and had the change produced social betterment?