Kuhn, Thomas

Thomas Kuhn (1922–1996) had a direct impact on the philosophy and practice of education and educational leadership due to his study of paradigms, their role in understanding phenomena, and their relationship to change and the change process. His work helped educators understand the how and why of differing professional perspectives and the revolutionary nature of scientific, organizational, and philosophical progress.

Kuhn was professor of philosophy and the history of science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1922. He earned his PhD from Harvard in 1949. He taught at Harvard but was denied tenure in 1955 because he was not an expert in anything. Afterward, he taught at the University of California-Berkeley, Princeton, and the New York Institute for the Humanities before joining the MIT faculty in 1979. From 1983 to 1991, he held the Lawrence Rockefeller Professorship in Philosophy.

Kuhn's major work, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, is one of the most frequently quoted and cited works in science in the twentieth century. In this [Page 547]text, a seminal work on the nature of scientific theory and how it changes, Kuhn articulated the concepts of paradigms and paradigm shifts, their importance to theory, and how they influence both thought and practice.

According to Kuhn, professions, professional thought, and professional practice are dominated by a major paradigm—or model—that explains relationships and prescribes actions. Paradigms allow for logical consideration of problems but limit consideration of possible solutions. Anomalies, according to Kuhn, events that the existing paradigm cannot account for, accumulate and eventually cause the paradigm to collapse. As a new paradigm begins to gain acceptance, the profession enters a revolutionary period in which the two different models compete for dominance. Defenders of the old paradigm who cannot or will not adapt eventually retire, and the new paradigm dominates the profession. In essence, the paradigm changes or shifts to provide a more accurate explanation of the profession's worldview.

Kuhn's concept of “incommensurability” underlies his thesis that growth and change in any profession do not proceed by a steady, cumulative acquisition of knowledge, but rather by long periods of intellectual peace punctuated by intellectually violent revolution. Therefore, a new paradigm cannot be established with the old paradigm as a foundation. The new can only supplant the old.

Given this position, professionals in any field accept what they have been taught and apply this knowledge to solving the problems they face. These problems cannot be addressed outside of the limits such bias imposes. Kuhn holds that objectivity, free thought, and skepticism, all necessary components for logical, rational thought, are absent in our consideration of such problems.

Kuhn's work has influenced the area of leadership most profoundly in addressing varying individual perspectives, effective communication, conflict resolution, and change management. His major contributions, beyond the concepts of paradigms and paradigm shifts, were a focus on the context of any paradigm and the consideration of thinking about how we think.