This part commences by introducing positivist and scientific contexts of research and some strengths and weaknesses of these for educational research. As an alternative paradigm, the cluster of approaches that can loosely be termed interpretive, naturalistic, phenomenological, interactionist and ethnographic are brought together, and their strengths and weaknesses for educational research are examined. The paradigm of mixed methods research is then introduced, and its strengths, weaknesses and contribution to educational research are discussed.
Critical theory as a paradigm of educational research is discussed, and its implications for the research undertaking indicated in several ways, resonating with curriculum research, participatory research and feminist research. These are concerned not only with understanding a situation or phenomenon but with changing it, often with an explicit political agenda. Critical theory links the conduct of educational research with politics and policy making, and this is reflected in the discussions here of research and evaluation, noting how some educational research has become evaluative in nature. A more recent perspective discussed here is that of complexity theory, originally from the natural sciences, but moving into social sciences. In all, this part introduces readers to different research traditions, with the advice that ‘fitness for purpose’ must be the guiding principle: different research paradigms for different research purposes.
A major message stressed in Part 1 is that the nature and foundations of educational research have witnessed a proliferation of paradigms over time. From the earlier days of either quantitative or qualitative research have arisen the several approaches introduced in this part. We present normative and interpretive perspectives in a complementary light and try to lessen the tension that sometimes exists between them.
The chapters in this part are deliberately of unequal size. Chapter 1, a sizeable chapter, provides a solid theoretical foundation to many of the subsequent approaches to educational research discussed in the book. It pays special attention to the underpinnings of qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods research.
The term research itself has many meanings. We restrict its usages here to those activities and undertakings aimed at developing a science of behaviour, the word science itself implying both normative and interpretive perspectives. Accordingly, when we speak of social research, we have in mind the systematic and scholarly application of the principles of a science of behaviour to the problems of people within their social contexts, and when we use the term educational research, we likewise have in mind the application of these same principles to the problems of teaching and learning within education and to the clarification of issues having direct or indirect bearing on these concepts.