This paper considers the bottom-up vision of the learning society. Unlike the top-down approach, the bottom-up approach does not start by specifying the purposes of learning which should direct the development of the learning society, but from observing interactions among learning individuals as agents. While in the relevant literature and…

This article addresses the ambiguity of the child's "voice" in social research. Drawing on a recent research project on young children's communication difficulties, the author argues that the currently popular discourse on "listening to children" is beset with practical and ethical ambiguities that result from the "socialness" of human…

This article suggests utilizing dialectical imagery, as understood by German social philosopher Walter Benjamin, as an additional qualitative data analysis strategy for research into the postmodern condition. The use of images mined from research data may offer epistemological transformative possibilities that will assist in the demystification of…

This paper seeks to engage the cultural interface where Indigenous knowledge meets Western academia, by questioning the validity of traditional research methods. Firstly, it is a response to the challenges facing Indigenous people confronted with the ethical and methodological issues arising from academic research. Secondly, it is a journey "into"…

This is an essay about the transformative power of interpretive epistemologies for those who come into the social sciences seeking meaning in the messiness of human experience. It is about how an epistemological exercise gave the author symbolic tools to become sentient of his father's subjective oppressive force in his life--with the man living…

In this article, the author begins to trace the concept "scientifically based research" in federal legislation, in the Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences, and in the reports of several National Research Council committees. She also discusses how this concept has produced a certain "scientism" that has been deployed to…

In response to an invitation to explore the idea that potential guidelines be considered for qualitative inquiry in environmental education research, this article argues that prerequisite understanding of the nature and scope of qualitative inquiry required for such a task will reveal the problem inherent in it. Understanding the diverse…

Epistemological and methodological differences which underlie empiricist v rationalist science are described. (Author/MP)

Examines what one scholar believes logically is or ought to be the relationship between philosophy and educational research. Explores the sense in which philosophizing constitutes a form of research and examines the role of philosophy in empirical research. Ends by challenging the dichotomy between "a posteriori" and "a priori" reasoning. (DSK)

The majority of social scientists continue to dismiss literary narratives as data that might lead to complex understandings of human phenomena. Introducing a method I call "novel inquiry", I argue that literary narratives merit inclusion as a source of data for educational inquiry. Utilizing literary narratives as a data source expands and…

Two studies, a cross-sectional (173 first-year and 215 final-year participants) and a longitudinal (81 participants), examined whether two aspects of the learning experience of student teachers (epistemological beliefs and learning approaches), and the interrelations between them changed as a result of their tertiary education. Between the first…

Evaluation research is conceived of as process of asking questions and finding answers. Discusses categorical theory, erotetic logic, pragmatics, and epistemology. (RB)

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…

Participatory research, feminist research, and participatory feminist research are about, from, and for oppressed persons and can enhance adult education research and democratizing goals. They require the researcher to relinquish relative power and control so that knowledge and action are generated from within disempowered groups. (SK)

Discusses family research in terms of insider/outsider perspectives, objectivity/subjectivity, and quantitative/qualitative methods. Suggests that conceptualizing research abstractions as points on a continuum results in better understanding of families and family processes. (SK)