r. hosseingholizadeh

The debate over theory and theorizing in educational administration has been an old and persistent challenge. Although many experts view the educational administration field as interdisciplinary and integrated, the epistemological foundations and detection of its interdisciplinary nature and classification in education administration that lead to a validation theory in this field has been rarely studied. Considering the single-discipline and interdisciplinary macro approaches in the production of science, an attempt of theorizing actually focuses on the interdisciplinary approach in terms of diversity of integrated types and their diversified performances. Using an analytical-inferential approach, the present study identifies the current condition of "theorizing" in educational administration after identifying and introducing the interdisciplinary evaluation criteria in three forms of multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary. And through analyzing a typical theory entitled "school as a social system" in educational administration, its natural and inevitable processes in the future have been investigated. The findings indicate that theorizing in educational administration studies is on the verge of transition from a single-discipline approach to multidisciplinary types. This way, the evolution of theorizing is predictable by diverging from a multidisciplinary to an interdisciplinary type.

The main purpose of this study was to study the effect of epistemological beliefs on knowledge sharing behavior and its comparison among graduate students. To achieve this objective, a descriptive- correlation research method was used. 357 graduate students were selected in four groups of Humanities, Science, Technology & Engineering, Agriculture and Natural Resources at the Ferdowsi University of Mashhad. The required data were gathered through knowledge sharing and epistemological beliefs questionnaires. According to the research findings, the situation of knowledge sharing (willingness, attitude and behavior) is not at a desirable level among graduate students. Also, the study findings showed that from the student’s viewpoint, knowledge is too simple, clear and depended references. Furthermore, the results of the comparison of the epistemological beliefs and knowledge sharing among graduate students in terms of degree, field of study, gender and year of entry showed that there is no significant difference. Moreover, according to the results of the hierarchical regression analysis, individual beliefs about certainty of knowledge and fixed ability learning can predict sharing more than simplicity of knowledge and quick learning.