Beyond Positivism: Research, Practice, and Undergraduate Professional Education

Abstract

Undergraduate professional education programs are supposed to mediate the relationship between research and practice. The positivist conception of the curriculum and the research-practice relationship remain dominant today. Unfortunately, this positivist conception carries flawed views of the undergraduate curriculum and its mediating role. Research is inevitably incomplete and “silent” on aspects of practice. The positivist view ignores the necessity for problem-setting and the uncertainty, complexity, and diversity that are embedded in work practices. This view also brings unfounded assumptions about the effectiveness of courses and programs, the language of practice, the work epistemologies of practitioners, and practitioners' work organizations. An alternative conception is founded upon the realities and demands of practice. Rather than assuming that research can and should drive both undergraduate curricula and work practices, practice should serve as the source of coherence for both. Practitioners' work epistemologies, together with practice's uncertainty, complexity, and variability, require changes in research and undergraduate programs. Examples of these changes are explored, together with selected challenges for higher education in the 1990s.