Research and Education

Will Curtis, Mark Murphy, Sam Shields

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781317936374
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Educational researchers take a number of decisions that define the credibility and scope of their enquiry – the approaches they adopt, the strategies they employ, the methods they use and the ways they present their findings. This core text provides an easy-to-read, comprehensive introduction to educational research that will develop your understanding of research strategies, theories and methods.

Specifically written for undergraduate education studies students, the book guides you through the process of planning a research project, the different research methods available and how to carry out your research and write it up successfully. Highlighting the theoretical and methodological debates and discussing important ethical and practical considerations, the book is structured to help you tackle all the different aspects of your project from writing your literature review, designing a questionnaire and analysing your data to the final writing up. The book will give you the confidence and enthusiasm to discuss and write about your research effectively.

Features include:

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• extension tasks -- to introduce new material and encourage you to think critically

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• case studies -- with information on important studies and examples of research that have utilised specific approaches

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• practical advice and tips -- to help you relate the topics discussed to your own on-going project work

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• annotated further reading lists -- providing you with an opportunity to access more detailed and specific resources.

Part of the Foundations of Education Studies series, this timely textbook is essential reading for students undertaking a research methods course or a piece of educational research.

CHAPTER

1

Approaches to educational research

Introduction

This chapter introduces students to the nature of research, considering in particular the meaning of ‘research’ and its purposes and uses within the specific context of education. It will look briefly at how research in education has developed historically and will highlight recent trends, emphasising the growing importance of educational research. The chapter also looks at key research paradigms, presenting the critical differences between scientific (i.e. positivist) and interpretivist perspectives. It will consider how these different theoretical perspectives relate to different research strategies and methods of data collection, looking in particular at quantitative and qualitative approaches to educational research.

What do we mean by educational research?

Booth et al. (1995) provide a good definition of what research is: ‘gathering the information you need to answer a question and thereby help you solve a problem’ (Booth et al., 1995: 6). Swap the word ‘question’ for the term ‘education question’ and you arrive at a fairly concise statement of the focus of this book. Gathering information in order to answer an education question is the raison d’être of educational research, and if the amount of educational research in existence is any indication, the field of education is awash with questions to be answered. This makes sense, because what happens in the field of education is hugely significant for a host of reasons – political, personal, social and cultural. Developments in education, along with the health sector, arguably receive the most coverage in the media, with newspapers and the wider media understanding the implications of educational findings not just for parents and pupils but also for policy makers (see the coverage in the Education Guardian, for example – www.educationguardian.co.uk).

Much more so than in other academic research areas such as anthropology or history, most research in education has practical as well as theoretical implications, with the results of studies often finding their way into policy and thereby shaping pedagogical practice. Given the kinds of questions that are often asked in education research, this is entirely to be expected:

How do children learn?

What are the most effective approaches to teaching in the classroom?

Does social class matter in the classroom?

What curriculum works best for primary children?

What subjects should pupils study in secondary school?

How may we best understand the nature of teacher professionalism?

How do students experience study in higher education?

These are just some of the common kinds of question asked in education research, but the list is endless, with more and more specialised questions engaging researchers. This vast field of research is also reflected in the ever-increasing number of academic journals devoted to the topic area, including journals devoted to specific subjects such as music education, maths education and physical education, as well as journals that focus on specific thematic areas such as special educational needs, teaching and learning in higher education, quality assurance in education and so on.

Approaches to educational research

Alongside this diversity of context, there is also a clear diversity of research design to be seen in the field of theoretical application. Research is conducted for a variety of reasons in parallel with the core reason stated above, which will have a clear impact on the analysis of the findings and also the implications that are drawn from the research. The forms of application can be roughly divided into the following categories (Murphy, 2013a):

Research as exploration

Research as interrogation

Research as reconstruction

Research as testing

Research as critique

Education research as exploration A large percentage of education research papers set out to explore specific educational phenomena, which can range from policies, curriculums or aspects of teaching practice to forms of social reproduction. A common approach to research generally, this form of educational research aims to flesh out and broaden our understanding of specific issues.

Research as interrogation A second common strand of education research takes theoretical concepts and uses them to ‘expose’ or reveal that which is hidden from view – to make explicit that which is implicit. This research tends to have a more political edge, much of it aiming to unmask the power relations behind seemingly neutral policies and practices. Therefore it should come as no surprise that various understandings of power have been applied across this sector, since a fascination with ‘what lies beneath’ state imperatives is a common professional response to the whirlwind of policy change in education.

Research as reconstruction Another strand of education research uses research to propose possible alternatives to the subject matter at hand – whether this is a policy, a practice or an idea. Sometimes this takes the form of action research, which has the production of new models as its aim, or sometimes it comes in the form of theoretical arguments that make the case for such models.

Research as testing Some researchers aim to ‘test’ a particular idea or hypothesis that has become central to a specific understanding of educational practice, policy or theory. Although this approach may be considered to align itself with a strictly scientific understanding of research, this is not always necessarily the case (see Chapter 18 for examples of this kind of approach that are more geared towards theoretical constructs).

Research as critique A welcome addition to the literature comes in the form of publications that question the relationships between education research and theoretical approaches drawn from other disciplines. These publications are welcome since they offer some balance with other forms of research that can sometimes be guilty of viewing research as an applied field only, thereby providing a kind of self-criticality that the field needs. The applications of this kind of research fall into three categories. The first is characterised by research that is critical of the relevance of the specific theory under scrutiny. The second category of critical research applications is exemplified by research that problematises the ways in which theory is applied. The third category is illustrated by researchers who use their own research to critique an original theory – a form of theory generation in its own right.

Key research paradigms in educational research

Often research in the social sciences is thought of in terms of two opposing paradigms. These have been given a range of names, but a useful way of understanding the key distinction is to think of research from either a positivist or an interpretivist point of view: The ‘traditional’ positivistic stance on research (sometimes known as the scientific, objectivist or normative approach), has some key basic tenets that for many decades were assumed to be the only way of conducting research:

The assumed neutrality and objectivity of a detached researcher, who should attempt to minimise his or her impact on the object of research and who is believed to be free from any bias related to social, political or cultural context.

Data which can be quantified, that is, turned into a number, in order that statistical relationships between variables can be discerned.

Research which is oriented towards establishing overarching patterns and trends and building theory from generalisable results (Curtis and Pettigrew, 2010: 58).

As Curtis and Pettigrew point out, the positivistic approach, which held sway for so long across the social sciences in the first half of the twentieth century, became the focus of sustained criticism once the sheen of ‘science’ had worn off the study of the social world. An alternative framework was offered ‘by those who saw research as an interpretive rather than scientific act’ (2010: 58). However, it was always bound to be thus since ideas, concepts and intellectual fra...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• 1 Approaches to educational research
• Part 1 Planning an education research project
• Part 2 Research strategies
• Part 3 Methods of data collection
• Part 4 Theorising research
• Glossary
• References
• Index