Education in general and educational administration in particular are functions of the interplay of social, political, and economic forces operative in society. Although the Commonwealth Caribbean consists of 16 unique and sovereign nations, these nations are sufficiently similar socially, culturally, politically, and economically to permit this paper's examination of educational administration in the region as a whole. The paper begins by describing broadly the political, social, and economic forces at work in the region. Among the major themes are liberation, production, pacification, social stratification, culture and socialization, and financial support for education. Common traditions in educational administration are reviewed next, including inservice "apprenticeship" for administrators, the administrator's roles as community leader and social role model, the autonomy of administrators, and central control of administration. Given these factors, certain specific needs of educational administration in the region can be identified, including the need for a thorough and complete description of the current state of the field, the need to develop theory suitable to the situation identified, the need to test the theory thus developed, and finally, the need to act on the results of this process rather than prior to careful study. (PGD)