Closing Methodological Divides: Toward Democratic Educational Research

ISBN-13: 9781402011641 / Angielski / Twarda / 2003 / 157 str.

Kenneth Ross Howe; K. R. Howe

Opis

The issues I treat in this book qualitative versus quantitative methods, facts versus values, science versus politics, subjectivity versus objectivity, postm- ernism versus pragmatism, to name a few are at the core of a lively, sometimes divisive, conversation that has been unfolding in the theory and practice of e- cational research for some time. These issues fall squarely within the province of philosophy, and thus philosophical investigation has an especially useful contribution to make. But these issues are by no means the exclusive province of philosophy; they are ones in which a diverse group of educational theorists have had a keen interest and about which they have had important things to say. The conversation I hope to join and to move forward is this broad and inclusive one. Philosophy of education is at its best when it dives headlong into the fray. The book borrows liberally from my previously published work, but is far from a simple compilation. The ideas developed in Chapter 7, On the Threat of Epistemological Bias, are new. The ideas developed in Chapter 9, Toward Democratic Educational Research, are a significant extension of the application of similar ideas to evaluation research. The ideas developed in Chapter 4, The Persistence of the Fact/Value Dogma, are in a form and at a level of detail not published before. Finally, Chapter 1, Introduction and Overview, weaves together my thinking on a large array of issues on educational research methodology that had only been loosely connected before."

Spis treści

Preface.Acknowledgments. 1. Introduction and Overview. Part I: Positivism and the Old Divides. Part II: Interpretivism and the New Divides. Part III: Ethical and Political Frameworks. Part I: Positivism and the Old Divides. 2. Two Dogmas of Educational Research. Dogma 1: The Quantitative/Qualitative Distinction. Dogma 2: The Fact/Value Dichotomy. Conclusion: Toward Closing the Old Divides. 3. The Quantitative/Qualitative Dogma. The Incompatibility Thesis and Research Practice. The Incompatibility Thesis and Epistemological Paradigms. Criteria for Evaluating Educational Research. Some Observations About Pragmatism. Conclusion: Compatibilist Educational Research. 4. Persistence of the Fact/Value Dogma. The Received View and Program Evaluation. The Received View and Educational Testing. Conclusion: Why the Fact/Value Dogma Persists. Part II: Interpretivism and the New Divides. 5. The Interpretive Turn. Epistemology. The Ontology of the Self. Politics. Conclusion: Toward Closing the New Divides. 6. The Constructivist Turn. Constructivism's Kantian Roots. Constructivism and the 'Linguistic Turn'. The Foundering of Radical Constructivism. Conclusion: Toward a Thoroughgoing Constructivism. 7. On the Threat of Epistemological Bias. What is Bias? What is Epistemology? What is a Biased Epistemology? Conclusion: Controlling Bias Through Inclusion. Part III: Ethical and Political Frameworks. 8. The Interpretive Turn and Research Ethics. The Traditional Problematic. The Contemporary Problematic. Conclusion: Continuity Through Change. 9. Toward Democratic Educational Research. A General Framework for Democratic Educational Research. The Democratic Framework Applied to Educational Policy Research. The Democratic Framework Applied to Pedagogical Research. Final Remarks. References.