ABSTRACT
Divisions and disagreements have always existed in the field of educational administration and leadership. For almost 100 years, some scholars and practitioners have argued that educational organizations should be run like businesses, but critics questioned businesslike management approaches. In the 1920s, Bode (1924) critiqued Bobbitt’s popular scientific approach to curriculum management. Callahan (1964) outlined how business influenced public education in his seminal book Education and the Cult of Efficiency. He described how Taylor’s gospel of efficiency forced principals to comply with the demands of business elites: “already under constant pressure to make education practical in order to serve a business society better, [principals] were brought under even stronger criticism and forced to demonstrate first, last, and always that they were operating the schools efficiently” (p. 18).
