This book focuses on the language of educational research as well as on the language of education. It conceives both as social practices and investigates how rhetoric plays a part in the complex process of historically situated argumentation. The book aims to answer such questions as: What is the nature of the arguments and the kinds of sources one relies on? and What kind of reasoning is offered to convince practitioners? Taking postmodern criticism seriously, the contributors argue that the scholar or researcher cannot indulge in relativism or be satisfied with a description of...
This book focuses on the language of educational research as well as on the language of education. It conceives both as social practices and invest...
Education and educational research, according to the current fashion, are supposed to be concerned with what works, to the exclusion of all other considerations. All over the world, and particularly in the English-speaking countries, governments look for means of improving student achievement as measured by standardized test scores. Although such improvements are often to be welcomed, they do not answer all significant questions about what constitutes good education. Also the research on which they are based is not the only legitimate way to do educational research. Social research, and...
Education and educational research, according to the current fashion, are supposed to be concerned with what works, to the exclusion of all other c...
Higher education plays a vital role in the sharing of the identity and culture of Europe and therefore receives considerable attention from scholars and policy makers. This volume is different in that it brings a philosophical perspective to the debate on higher education in Europe. As a work of applied philosophy, it reflects on changes in European identity with the development of the European Union after the fall of the Berlin Wall and considers the reciprocal relationship between these changes and higher education. By uncovering the unavoidable philosophical problems embedded in...
Higher education plays a vital role in the sharing of the identity and culture of Europe and therefore receives considerable attention from schola...
Statistics are everywhere. Their power and their undoubted efficacy in many areas have given rise to faith in measurement and metrics. More of them will tell us all that we need to know. Their use carries with it a number of presuppositions: that reality can be satisfactorily represented and that it can be controlled or the risks managed. The papers in this book interpret the ethics and aesthetics of statistics in terms of representation, visualisation and accessibility, focus on the appeal of simplicity, of technical languages, numbers, diagrams and pictures, and pay attention to their...
Statistics are everywhere. Their power and their undoubted efficacy in many areas have given rise to faith in measurement and metrics. More of them wi...
Educational research is widely believed to be essentially empirical, consisting mainly of collecting and analysing data, with randomised control trials as the 'gold standard'. This book argues that good educational research is often philosophical in nature. Offering a critical overview of the current state of educational research, the authors argue that there are two factors in particular that distort it. One is that throughout the world it is expected to serve the interests of the state in securing educational improvements, as measured by standardised examination results, and to demonstrate...
Educational research is widely believed to be essentially empirical, consisting mainly of collecting and analysing data, with randomised control trial...
