Session Information
ERG SES F 05, Educational Research
Parallel paper session
Contribution
This research begins with the observation that in Italy, different from other European countries, the epistemological questions in the educational field are centered on the epistemic identity of the knowledge of reference. From the 1940s we are still wondering if pedagogy/education could be considered as a science and, if this is the case, what are its peculiar aspects. This epistemic unproductiveness strongly affects the way of thinking about research. In fact while in the UK it is established that research is educational research (see Journal of Philosophy of Education, 2006, Educational Theory, 2008-2011), in Italy there is still controversy about the essential terms of the issue and the research is qualified sometimes as educational, sometimes as pedagogical. Given this preamble, my proposal is to change the direction of the epistemological question. It should no longer be about the epistemic identity of pedagogy, but it should rather be: is educational research possible as scientific research? And in which terms? That means, in line with the 20th century epistemology, is educational research able to generate knowledge progress? This question raises a series of other questions. Specifically: how does the scientific researcher work? What do we mean by the term science in epistemology?
From these premises, I considered it fundamental to divide my research into three different parts.
In the first chapter I analyzed the four forms of scientific rationality of the 1900s: the neopositivism of the Vienna Circle, the conventionalism of Poincaré, Duhem, Kuhn, the falsificationism of Popper and the methodology of research programs of Lakatos. I conducted this inquiry based on a few fundamental questions:
-When is a theory scientific?
-What is the relationship with truth in scientific research?
-When is scientific progress achieved?
The final goal of this first chapter is to create a sort of diagnostic instrument through which questioning, in the second chapter, if the epistemic assumption of educational research is possible. Specifically this task is divided into two parts. Assuming that neopositivism underlying the epistemology of the quantitative methodology and conventionalism underlies qualitative methodology, then the first subject to consider concerns the coherence between epistemology and the utilized methodology.
Then, guided by Popper’s and Lakatos’ criticism of neopositivist and conventionalist epistemology, we will examine if this criticism can highlight the limits of educational research.
The aim of the third chapter will be to demonstrate the necessity of overcoming the quantitative/qualitative dichotomy so that educational research brings knowledge progress (Rowbotton-Ainston, 2006). This does not mean to deny the need for the research methodology to engage in a form of scientific rationality. On the contrary the proposal I intend to push forward with my research is to analyze if the lakatosian methodology can give us an affirmative answer to the questions outlined above.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
DUHEM P., La théorie physique: son object et sa structure, M. Reviere Paris, 1906. “Educational Theory”, 2008, vol.58, n.2. “Educational Theory”, 2011, vol.61, n.5. KUHN T.S., The structure of scientific revolution, University of Chicago Press Chicago, 1962. “Journal of Philosophy of Education”, 2006, vol.40, n.2-4 LAKATOS I., Falsification and methodology of scientific reserach programm, in Lakato I. Musgrave A., Criticism and growth of knowledge, Cambridge University Press Cambridge, 1970. NEURATH O., HANS H., CARNAP R., Wissenschaftliche Weltaffasung. Der Wiener Kreis, A. Wolf Wien, 1929. POINCARÉ H.J., Le science et l'hypothese, E. Flammarion Paris, 1905. POPPER K.R., The logic of scientifiv discovery, Hutchinson London, 1959.
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