The science of context: modes of response for qualitative researchers in education

Abstract

How might qualitative researchers meaningfully operate in a contemporary research climate that holds to such limited conceptions of what constitutes ‘scientific’ research in education? This article discusses implications of scientifically based research (SBR) and identifies several pathways along which researchers may productively work in such a context. These include: (1) Conducting critical inquiry into the socio‐intellectual frameworks and institutional networks driving such policy development; (2) Educating peers and policy‐makers about key precepts of cultural practice and qualitative research; (3) Achieving greater transparency in research designs, inference and theory development, and quality criteria; (4) Adopting mixed‐methods research designs; and (5) Undertaking public access or public‐interest education research. The central aim is to orient qualitative researchers to those modes of scholarship that can most powerfully impact the projects to which they are committed, and thereby extend the notion and application of SBR.

Acknowledgements

The author is grateful to Michael Firmin and Cedarville University for supporting the writing of an earlier version of this paper, to Handel Wright and Patti Lather, and to the official reviewers for their excellent comments. All remaining weaknesses in the article, of course, remain the author’s own.

Notes

An earlier version of this article was presented as the keynote address at the 17th Annual Ethnographic and Qualitative Research in Education Conference, 3–4 June 2005, Cedarville University, Cedarville, OH.