This monograph analyzes the philosophical foundations of research into the administration of educational organizations. The first part reviews past debates about the philosophical foundations of research in educational administration, focusing on three contending schools of thought: the empiricists, the phenomenologists, and the critical…

Describes research in two different domains: novices learning programing, and school pupils interpreting Cartesian graphs. Findings in each domain are discussed, but the main focus is an examination of the extent to which general principles and issues apply across both domains. Research implications for instructional design are discussed.…

Two comparative studies of educational design in socialist states (Chile and Zimbabwe) shared remarkably similar conclusions despite disparate geo-cultural contexts and divergent research methodologies. Comparative analysis of the religio-political conflicts highlighted in each study's conclusion and the researchers' divergent epistemologies and…

Analyzes chapters on epistemology and methodology in the "Handbook of Research on Social Studies Teaching and Learning." Laments the imprecise definition concerning the epistemological nature of the social studies. Concludes the handbook does not clarify this definition and that social studies research reflects this missing broader…

The development of critical ethnography in the field of education is traced. Critical ethnographers focus on research accounts sensitive to the dialectical relationship between social structure constraints and the relative autonomy of human agency. The status of critical ethnography as a research genre is discussed, and criticisms are described.…

Describes the evolution of the qualitative-quantitative debate, and suggests that educational researchers learn to live with the necessary tensions resulting from accepting elements of each approach. The proposed critical educational research model is illustrated through examples that go beyond a positivist-interpretivist split. (SLD)

Explores strategies that feminist researchers in experimental and cognitive psychology have used to eliminate androcentrism and sexism. Studying the history of feminist work in these areas from 1890 to the 1990s makes the need for continuing focus on epistemological and theoretical problems apparent. (SLD)

Argues that ignorance is a better criterion than truth for determining the usefulness of knowledge generated through educational research. Implications for conceptualizing and teaching research are discussed, illustrating how attention to ignorance can increase understanding in areas such as practitioner research and cooperative research. (SLD)

Illustrates the use of auto- and biographical materials as part of a research process concerned with problematic aspects of learning science. Draws on an extended study of graphing among university students and research scientists, and on the autobiography and interview data from one of the authors to point out some of the sources of difficulties…

This paper contains a consideration of the nature and role of warrants for research conclusions in educational research. The paper argues the need for an explicit warrant in the form of a logical and persuasive link between the evidence produced and the conclusions drawn (with appropriate qualifications and caveats). It describes social scientific…

The basic premise for this paper is that any educational program or technology should be evaluated on the basis of the theoretical foundations or perspectives on which it is implicitly or explicitly based. Structured in three main sections, it reviews recent literature in areas related to the many aspects that influence learning through…

This paper has three purposes. First, it places in scientific perspective the growing acceptance in educational administration research of alternative methods to empiricism by an explication of chaos theory and its assumptions. Second, it demonstrates that chaos theory provides a scientific basis for investigation of complex qualitative variables…

One debate in the field of development communications research focuses on the type of science that ought to be practiced: empirical or critical. The issues involved are many, but epistemological analysis can shed light on a number of them. Traditional empiricism as embodied in the "classical" development communications work is deserving…

Rhetoricians have shown both that any description of reality is inherently incomplete and that the only way to cope with this incompleteness is to continually search for more encompassing perspectives. What this says to organizational theorists is that critical approaches to the study of organizational communication should take a rightful place…

By examining assumptions which comprise traditional sociological thought, problems, and criticisms of sociological practice, and current issues of feminist sociology, the document investigates ways in which sociology can be transformed to include feminist perspectives. Following a rationale for reformulating fundamental assumptions of sociology to…