Much of the ongoing discussion about the scientific value of narrative research and the criteria for narrative research comes down to conceptions of the aims of educational research and what this means for an interest in the "truth." The growing number of publications about narrative research has resulted in warnings and criticism. One…

Rhetoric must be defined not merely as a way of transmitting knowledge, but as a way of knowing. Knowing is a social act, requiring the mind to categorize sensory data intersubjectively, according to category systems that are socially generated and consensually validated. The dissociation between knower and known implied by the stance of…

Despite the early and well-received presentation of ideas foundational to modern rhetorical theory, Susanne K. Langer's accomplishments are rarely credited in the work of other scholars. What Langer did, so essential to the rebirth of rhetoric, was to represent meaning as both socially constructed and achieved collaboratively by rhetor and…

Gorgias' rhetoric can be explained in three parts: his sensory-based but non-empirical epistemology; his definitions of language as inherently deceptive and of "doxa" as the only "knowledge" communicable; and his antithetical style, which reproduces the necessary negotiation of understanding in the world. Gorgias' epistemology…

This paper addresses a variation of the traditional validity question asked of qualitative researchers. Here the question is not "How do we know the qualitative researcher's question is valid?" but rather, "How does the qualitative researcher choose from among a multitude of apparently valid or at least plausible…

A review of the literature on attribution theory suggests that attributional templates may be similar to balanced structures, in that they are cognitive constructs that have an organizing influence on thought processes and exert a similar organizational influence on the memory for social information. Therefore, the three basic attributional…

In the information age, Educational Technologists exist in complex, codependent organizations where the information age is demanding changes to our theory and praxis (Reigeluth, 2001). In this paper, the author argues that advanced leadership theory and practice can be used to characterize and design educational technology R&D, along with…

This manuscript examines the uneasy relationship between qualitative and quantitative research. The multiple perspectives of qualitative researchers, quantitative researchers, and critical theorists should be "harmoniously engaged in an earnest dialogue, lifting the discussion to a new level of insight, making progress toward workable…

New narrative research shares the epistemological presuppositions of the broad current of postfoundationalism. It says that there is no position outside of our language (or our form of life) that allows us to check whether statements we make about reality are true or false. This is, however, not the same as relativism or subjectivism. The…

The study of composition is in need of a methodology to teach students about the creation of evidence and the epistemological role that it plays in all writing. For many students "evidence" is an absolute, an assortment of facts found in encyclopedias, graphs, tables, census studies, surveys, almanacs, and so on. For most instructors,…

Space is related to power in that it is critical to the social production and reproduction of difference. This paper re-imagines a critical multiculturalism that embraces critical spatial theory and postmodern identity politics. In an overview of postmodern spatial theory, the works of Lefebvre (1974), E. Soja (1989, 1996), and M. Foucault (1986)…

A study attempted to describe visitors' psychological functioning while viewing museum exhibits. The research was designed to enable a comparison of psychological functioning as viewed by subjects and a researcher. Two sets of data were gathered, the first with 45 visitors (men and women, 25-65 years of age, with various educational levels) to a…

This paper is an analysis of the ongoing work of philosopher Jacques Derrida and the immense body of work associated with him. Derrida's copious work is difficult to categorize since Derrida challenges the very concept that meaning can be grasped in its original moment or that meaning can be represented in the form of some proper, self-identical…

The levels of critical thinking proposed by R. Paul are described and his theory is compared with that of the procedural knowing approach of M. F. Belenky, B. M. Clinchy, N. R. Goldberger, and J. M. Tarule (1986). The distinction between strong sense and weak sense critical thinking is unique to Paul and central to his theory. Critical thinking in…

Much revisionist scholarship has focused on sophistic epistemology and its relationship to the current revival of epistemic rhetoric in the academy. However, few scholars have recognized the sensuous substance of words as sounds, and the role it played in sophistic philosophy and rhetoric. Before the invention of the Greek alphabet, poetry was…