The issues I treat in this bookqualitative versus quantitative methods, facts versus values, science versus politics, subjectivity versus objectivity, postm- ernism versus pragmatism, to name a feware 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 joinand to move forwardis 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.

Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Klappentext

This book is unique in the sweep of issues it considers and the way it integrates them under one general philosophical perspective. Vital reading for philosophers of education, educational researchers and social science methodologists.

Inhalt
and Overview.- Positivism and the Old Divides.- Two Dogmas of Educational Research.- The Quantitative Qualitative Dogma, the Incompatibility Thesis, and the Pragmatic Alternative.- The Persistence of the Fact/Value Dogma: A Characterization and Critique of the Received View.- Interpretivism and the New Divides.- The Interpretive Turn.- The Constructivist Turn.- On the Threat of Epistemological Bias.- Ethical and Political Frameworks.- The Interpretive Turn and Research Ethics.- Toward Democratic Educational Research.