Margins, Methodology, Madness: Philosophy As Research In Higher Education

Author(s):

Amanda Fulford(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2014

Network:

22. Research in Higher Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

22 SES 10 B, Teaching, Learning and Assessment in Higher Education

Paper Session

Time:

2014-09-04

15:30-17:00

Room:

B021 Anfiteatro

Chair:

Monne Wihlborg

Contribution

This research project is rooted in my academic background as a philosopher of education, and in the practices of teaching research methods modules to postgraduate students in education and the social sciences. This experience strongly suggests that research methods training for postgraduate students tends to be concerned almost exclusively with empirical approaches. My experience is that students express surprise that non-empirical work constitutes ‘research’ as such; they ask if philosophy of education can inform their everyday work, or are concerned whether such approaches are acceptable in their academic work. This research adopts just such a non-empirical, philosophical approach; that is, its ‘method’ is through the force of its argument and its examples. In trying to understand the value of philosophy of education to researching practical concerns, it will consider two key questions: first, what might be the issues with teaching predominantly empirical approaches in the university?; second, what are the possibilities that philosophy of education can offer to postgraduate research students in this discipline, and why should students pursue them? The research will outline how the framework for discussion of these issues comes from the way that empirical research has been theorised within the philosophical literature, and how philosophers of education understand their (distinctive) contribution to the field. It will show how this is not just a debate confined to a particular geographical location, but how issues of method and methodology in research in higher education is increasingly a European discourse.

This is not merely a personal reflection, nor evidence of a desire to promote the field of philosophy of education as something of a panacea for what may be perceived as ‘wrong’ in research. Other scholars have pointed to how the dominance of certain approaches affects what is seen as appropriate, as evidencing quality and as constituting ’useful’ research that has impact in education. Judith Suissa writes of her experience of being a philosopher on an educational research training programme, and Naomi Hodgson and Paul Standish (2006; 2007) point to the orthodoxy of the induction into, and the processes of, research. But this also a broad issue: a European conference held in Belgium in the summer of 2013 reflected on the question: ‘Why “what works” doesn’t work in educational research’ (see Smeyers and Depaepe 2010 and Keiner and Smith 2013).

In answering the first question raised by this project, the research will ask to what extent there is a case to be made for ‘evidence-based’ research in education and what issues different European countries might have in ‘using’ such research to inform professional practice in educational settings. In turning to the second question, the research will consider how philosophical research can help in looking at the everyday practices within education, and what is at stake here beyond simply ‘what works’. In this respect, the research will draw on Gert Biesta’s (2010) ideas of how research can inform value-based rather than evidence-based educational practice. By rigorously concentrating attention on the very practical problems that higher education raises (such as how to support academic writing for postgraduates - see Fulford 2009), the research tends to move out beyond questions of ‘how to’, to ones about the nature of knowledge, how we live well alongside each other and to questions of ethics – the central concerns of philosophy.

In summary, then, this research, through a critical engagement with the literature, will make a case for the practice of philosophy of education as research, not as the technical application of a method or a methodology, but as enquiry that uncovers and brings clarity to our thoughts about the everyday concerns of education.

Method

This research takes an unusual approach methodologically, in that the way in which it is approached is itself an example of what the paper is arguing for: namely a non-empirical approach to research in higher education. The project explores the practices of philosophy of education through and as reading and writing. In this sense it develops the existing work on what philosophers of education do, in order to demonstrate that philosophy as research is a way in which educational policy and practice can be explored. The research is therefore sets out to ask whether we can know anything about education through research that is not empirical. It questions whether we can fully understand the nature of ‘research’ as the application only of traditional (empirical) methodologies. It does not seek to make a case for philosophy of education as another research approach or method, but rather makes the claim that it is in the reading and writing of philosophy that research can be conducted. Such research, it argues, is centrally concerned with issues of conceptual clarification (such as self-esteem in education), and with questions of value and justification (such as the place of transferable skills in higher education). In seeking to address these issues, it gives particular attention to literature and to the work of other philosophers of education.

Expected Outcomes

Much research in education departments in universities focuses on practical issues common across different European counties such as pedagogical approaches, student achievement or increasingly issues of parenting/childrearing. These matters are often discussed as empirically researchable questions. That some of these interests are very closely related to those with which philosophy of education is concerned - for example, the nature of learning, the aims of education, social justice, the ethics of care and moral education - tends not to be recognised. This seems related to a concern with how to proceed (practically). While there is a very wide range of texts for students/researchers in higher education, specifically focussing on how to conduct and manage research and how to write up the results into a successful dissertation, most of these are variations on a standard format (how to devise research questions or hypotheses, select a methodology, design data collection instruments, analyse quantitative and qualitative data, and approach the writing up of the dissertation). Such texts are concerned with the application of method(s) to the substantive question. In these texts, the practices of researching in philosophy of education are notably absent, or philosophy of education is reduced to being listed as a possible research method, without acknowledgement of the variety of possibilities this field itself might offer. In light of the above, one of the outcomes of this research that is already emerging, is the need to support research students with introducing the practices of reading and writing for philosophical research. It is not that a ‘how to’ guide is needed here, but that research methods training courses which focus on the technical aspects of empirical research need to give space to considering philosophy as research (in itself) for education. The research is therefore expected to lead to curricular developments in higher education.

References

Bailey, R., (Ed.), (2010), The Philosophy of Education: London: Continuum. Biesta, G., (2010), ‘Why “What Works” Still Won’t Work: From evidence-based education to value-based education’, Studies in Philosophy and Education, 29, pp. 491 – 503. Fulford, A., (2009) ‘Ventriloquising the Voice: Student Writing in the University’, Journal of Philosophy of Education, Vol. 43, No. 2., pp. 223-237. Hodgson, N., and Standish, P., (2006), ‘Induction into Educational Research Networks: The Striated and the Smooth’, Journal of Philosophy of Education, Vol. 40, No. 4, pp. 563 – 574. Hodgson, N., and Standish, P., (2007), ‘Network, Critique, Conversation: Toward a re-thinking of educational research training’, in P. Smeyers and M. Depaepe, (Eds), Educational Research: Networks and technologies, Dordrecht: Springer. Keiner, E., and Smith, R., ‘Education, Science and Meaning’,(2013) Invited paper given at the International Conference: ‘Reviewed? Renewed? Revisited! Past, Present, and Future of Philosophy and History of Educational Research, KU Leuven, Belgium, 6th – 8th June 2013. Smeyers, P., and Depaepe, M., (2010), (Eds), Educational Research: Why ‘What Works’ Doesn’t Work, Dordrecht: Springer. Stone, L., (2006), ‘From Technologization to Totalization in Education Research: US graduate training, methodology, and critique’, Journal of Philosophy of Education, Vol. 40, No. 4, pp. 527-545.

Author Information

Amanda Fulford (presenting / submitting)

Leeds Trinity University

Leeds

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