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the need for certain levels of experience. In this sense theory may be regarded as a
distillation of the experience of others.

The nature of theory
The acquisition of theory is made more complex by the bewildering range of
approaches espoused by the many commentators on education. There is no single
all-embracing theory to guide practitioners as they grapple with their problems. This is
because theory in educational management comprises a series of perspectives rather
than an all-embracing ‘scientific’ truth. House (1981) explains the nature of educational
theory thus:

Our understanding of knowledge utilization processes is conceived not so much
as a set of facts, findings, or generalizations but rather as distinct perspectives
which combine facts, values, and presuppositions into a complex sereen through
which knowledge utilization is seen.

Whichever screen one adopts leads one to focus on certain features of
knowledge utilization events, to advocate certain policies rather than others, and to
conduct certain types of research and evaluation studies. Through a particular screen
one sees certain events, but one may see different scenes through a different screen…

These ‘paradigms’ are not the same as those attributed by Kuhn to physi-
cal science. Kuhn (1970) saw scientific fields of endeavour as having a set of beliefs,
values, and techniques that are shared within a field of scientific inquiry. Eventually
the dominant paradigm is challenged by anomalous facts that cannot be explained
by the old paradigm. A new paradigm emerges which can explain these new facts.
However, the physical world itself remains constant.

The action perspectives, by contrast, ‘describe’ or operate in a social or political
world that is itself changing…The perspectives rest more upon a professional consensus
of what is possible and relevant and valued rather than upon a scientific consensus
as to what is true…The perspective is a ‘way of seeing’ a problem rather than a rigid
set of rules and procedures.

(House, 1981, pp. 17 and 20)