This paper explores the prospects of using critical realism as a guiding philosophy for critical inquiry in the field of educational administration. A relatively recent philosophy in the social sciences, critical realism offers an alternative framework for researchers engaged in empirical work that is aimed at transforming undesirable social realities. As a philosophical framework, critical realism recognizes the importance of agency in research and sees social transformation as an essential outcome of research in the human sciences. (Contains 1 note.)