PRIMITIVE SEMANTIC NOTIONS ABOUT HIERARCHICAL STRUCTURES: IMPLICATIONS FOR EDUCATIONAL ORGANISATIONS AND EDUCATIONAL KNOWLEDGE

Abstract

This article proposes that both the new critique of organisation theory in education and the “new” sociology of education overlook, in their respective knowledge claims, a fundamental disposition in the human species to view the phenomenal and the metaphysical worlds in a hierarchically structured way. We perceive organisational and epistemological structures much more consistently than some theorists would allow. This consistency is due to the effects of two types of semantic primitives which operate to constrain our world views and whose influence we bypass only with difficulty and only by dint of rigorous intellectual effort. After reviewing some of the various epistemological claims that are made both about educational organisations and about the knowledge that concerns educational organisations, the article discusses the two types of semantic primitives that seem to impinge upon our world views: universal semantic primitives; and acquired semantic primitives. Implications for human perspectives on the world and for theory in educational administration are drawn from the discussion. Methods for escaping the constraints of these two types of primitives are proposed.