What can the work of Habermas offer educational researcher development programmes?

Abstract

Although certain aspects of the work of Habermas have had much influence on emancipatory and action research, this article draws on a wider range of his thinking in order to explore how his ideas can inform the content and process of educational researcher development programmes. Habermas's theory of communicative action, his discourse ethics and his work on deliberative democracy suggest a process for examining perspectives, methodologies and the ‘truths’ offered by research on terms congruent with their epistemologies. The implications of the proposed framework are that a plurality of ontological and epistemological positions should be presented in educational researcher development programmes and, for this to happen, representative voices need to be heard. The search for and construction of knowledge as a cumulative and revisable process of communicative action is proposed as a model for discourse on such programmes.

Keywords:

• doctoral education
• Habermas
• educational research
• methodology
• research training