This is a highly selective summary of Part 1of the above text, entitled 'The Context of Educational Research'. Different research traditions are described. 'Fitness for purpose' is offered as a guiding principle for their employment.
1. The nature of enquiry
Introduction
Three methodologies are to be described:
- Scientific / Positivistic
- Naturalistic / Interpretive
- Methodologies from critical theory.
Methodologies (which determine how data is collected) derive from epistemological (theory of knowledge) assumptions which in turn derive from ontological ('what-there-is') assumptions.
Educational research is inextricably political.
The search for truth
The means by which people seek to understand the world may be broadly classified as experience, reasoning and research.
Experience provides 'hypotheses and questions about the world' but has 'decided limitations' 'for uncovering ultimate truth'.
Reasoning relies on deduction (from major premise to individual cases), induction (from individual cases to general statement), or a combination of the two.
Research - a combination of experience and reasoning - is a systematic and controlled, empirical (verifiable by observation), critical (and thus self-correcting) investigation.
Two conceptions of social reality
Two contrasting conceptions of social reality are described under four headings: ontology, epistemology, human nature and methodology. The scheme below summarises this analysis.
The subjective-objective dimension
A scheme for analysing assumptions about the nature of social science
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Subjectivist view of
social science |
Objectivistic view of
social science |
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ontology
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Anti-positivism
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epistemology
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human nature
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methodology
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Source: Burrell and Morgan, 1979
The various -isms are briefly described.
Positivism
Positivism accepts natural science as the paradigm for human knowledge. In the context of the social sciences this implies:
- The researcher is an observer of social reality
- Analysis is to be expressed in law-like generalisations.
The assumptions and nature of science
The characteristics of the scientific method are:
- Determinism (cause and effect)
- Empiricism (verification is by observation)
- Parsimony (Ockham's razor)
- Generality (laws apply generally).
The goal of scientific research is held to be theory which as well as organising knowledge serves to prompt further enquiry by fuelling new hypotheses. (Educational theory is held to be a young science, at the early stages of formulation, with the consequent observation that much educational research is merely descriptive.)
The tools of science
Concepts are the stock in trade of scientists: they express generalisations, represent ideas, allow order to be imposed on observations of the world. They are human inventions and limited in number (in contrast to the infinite number of phenomena that they represent). Social scientists, no less than natural scientists, utilise concepts, e.g. social class.
Hypotheses state relations between two, or more, variables and generate ways to be tested.
The scientific method
Whilst recognising the oversimplication implied, a brief outline of 'the scientific method' is described. Salient features include: hypothesising, experimenting, correlating, explaining, law-making, generalising, theorising.
Criticisms of positivism and the scientific method
Some prominent critics of positivism are introduced: notably Blake and Kierkegaard, plus more recent names. Positivism's dehumanising perspective, the denial of subjectivity, intention, individualism and freedom is emphasised. A famous quote from Wittgenstein is adduced by way of summary: 'We feel that even when all possible scientific questions are answered, the problems of our life have not even begun to be touched'.
Cohen, L., Manion, L. & Morrison, K. (2000), Research Methods in Education 5th Edition, London, RoutledgeFalmer
