Introduction: Education, ethics, and the “cult of efficiency”: implications for values and leadership

In 1962, historian Raymond E. Callahan argued that American educators had allowed themselves to become overly enchanted by Taylorite notions of scientific management and had adopted the techniques of the business‐industrial world, to the detriment of the nation's students. Callahan's Education and the Cult of Efficiency not only offered a new and bold interpretation of the history of education in the twentieth century, but it also coined a phrase that continues to represent the constant struggle faced by educators as they seek to balance high‐quality instructional practices with external calls for accountability that often come from corporate and public leaders. This special issue of the Journal of Educational Administration (JEA) presents a set of articles which explore the theme of “Education, Ethics, and the Cult of Efficiency.” The articles that make up this issue began as papers delivered at the 8th Annual Values and Educational Leadership Conference held at Pennsylvania State University in October 2003. The essence of our message in this: The traditional parameters of managerialism and efficiency focused responses to administrative situations must now be augmented with more creative, sophisticated and morally defensible approaches to leadership.