Researching Education Data, methods and theory in educational enquiry

by Scott, David; Usher, Robin

• ISBN13: 9781441101662
• ISBN10: 1441101667
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-02-17
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

RESEARCHING EDUCATION looks at the theory and practice of researching education and examines the philosophical, historical, political and social contexts of research and the implications of these for the collection and analysis of data. Scott and Usher argue that while power is ever present in the construction of research texts, this is inevitable as research imposes a closure of the world through representations and thus is always and inevitably involved with and implicated in the operation of power. The authors provide a theoretical framework against previously compiled research can be judged to stimulates further study and consider key questions: What is legitimate knowledge? What is the relationship between the collection and analysis of data? How does the researcher's presence in the field impact on their data? This new edition has been completely revised to reflect new insights into education research and educational research methodology and the impact of recent political initiatives. RESEARCHING EDUCATION is invaluable reading for educational and social researchers as well as postgraduate and doctoral students.

Author Biography

David Scott is Professor of Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment, and Faculty Director of Teaching and Learning at the Institute of Education, University of London, UK. Robin Usher was Professor of Research Education and Director of Research Training at RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. He is now a freelance consultant.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	p. viii
Acknowledgements	p. ix
Introduction	p. 1
Preamble	p. 1
Conspectus	p. 3
Knowledge and Philosophy
Philosophical Issues in Educational Research	p. 9
Philosophy	p. 9
Epistemoiogy	p. 11
Positivism	p. 12
Representational realism	p. 14
Textuality	p. 18
Postmodern critiques	p. 23
Critical Approaches to Research	p. 26
Interpretivist/hermeneutic approaches	p. 27
Critical theory	p. 35
Action research	p. 41
Forms of Reasoning	p. 48
Induction	p. 48
Deduction	p. 51
Retroduction	p. 53
Abduction	p. 54
Strategies and Methods
Experiments and Quasi-Experiments	p. 61
Internal validity	p. 62
External validity	p. 63
One-off case study design	p. 63
Single-group experimental design	p. 64
The static group comparison	p. 65
The pre-test and post-test control group design	p. 66
Factorial design	p. 68
The problem of time	p. 70
Survey and Correlational Designs	p. 77
Sampling	p. 78
Statistical Processes	p. 80
'School Matters: The Junior Years'	p. 81
Causality	p. 84
Qualitative Research Design, Case Study and Theory Building	p. 89
Logical inference	p. 91
Case study	p. 92
Quality/quantity	p. 95
Epistemology/ontology	p. 99
Communicative competence	p. 102
Observation	p. 105
Participation	p. 105
Instrument structure	p. 109
Fitness for purpose	p. 112
Interviews	p. 115
Interview structure	p. 115
Epistemological and ontological frameworks	p. 120
Power relations	p. 121
Biographical and Autobiographical Methods	p. 125
Biography/autobiography	p. 126
Phmomenotogical/structural approaches	p. 128
The text	p. 129
Themes and Issues
Ethics and Educational Research	p. 135
Covert research	p. 137
Open democratic reseach	p. 139
Open autocratic research	p. 142
Evaluation and Research	p. 144
Differences	p. 144
Commonalities	p. 146
Criteria for Evaluating Research	p. 149
Naturalistic inquiry	p. 153
Alternative criteria	p. 155
Examining research texts	p. 157
Internal and external criteria	p. 158
Types of judgement	p. 159
Evidence in judgement	p. 162
Parasitic criteria	p. 164
External criteria	p. 167
Concluding remarks	p. 169
Transgressive Research	p. 170
A postmodern approach	p. 170
Feminist approaches to research	p. 177
Radical research practices	p. 184
References	p. 190
Subject Index	p. 197
Author Index	p. 201
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