Greenfield, T. Barr (Thomas Barr)

• Greenfield, T. Barr (Thomas Barr), 1930-
• Greenfield, Thomas Barr
• Greenfield, Thomas

Thomas Barr Greenfield (1930–1992) was a Canadian scholar whose ideas have been influential in the study of educational administration. Greenfield was born in 1930 in Saskatchewan, Canada. He studied English and German at the University of British Columbia. After graduating from the undergraduate program in British Columbia he began teaching in schools and eventually moved to the field of educational administration. In 1961 he moved to Edmonton Alberta to join the Masters program in Educational Administration at the University of Alberta and subsequently he completed a PhD in the same department. After a period at the University of Alberta he returned to the University of British Columbia where he worked as a professor and researcher. After a brief stay in British Columbia, he received an appointment at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto where he wrote his most influential works.

Greenfield argued against the positivist orientation of the so-called Theory Movement in educational administration and proposed a subjectivist approach to the study of educational administration. In his view, educational organizations have no existence beyond the actions, perceptions and values of the members of the organization. Thomas Greenfield's work has been studied and commented by numerous authors. The Canadian Association for the Study of Educational Administration instituted the Thomas B. Greenfield PhD Dissertation Award in his honour. The award is presented at the annual conference of the Canadian Society for the Study of Education. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_B._Greenfield)

Added to AtoM by Maya Pasternak, July 2019.