(Re)introducing critical realism as a paradigm to inform qualitative content analysis in causal educational research

Abstract

This article contributes to the debate on the empirical applications of critical realism (CR) in school effectiveness research. Researchers that endorse this research paradigm privilege intensive, over extensive, research designs, focussing, hence, in ethnographic methods and qualitative interviewing. However, and despite some recent academic proposals, there is little guidance in the literature on how to analyse qualitative data using the lenses of CR to produce causal knowledge about the operation of education policies in society. The current piece elaborates on the tenets of dialectical CR to develop some methodological arguments on how to engage in this type of empirical work. These reflections are then applied to analyse qualitative information retrieved in three ‘failing’ schools from Northern Colombia as an exemplar.

Keywords:

• School failure
• qualitative analysis
• dialectical critical realism
• Colombia

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank members of both of the communities that we visited during our field research for sharing their experiences with us in such an open and transparent way. The excellent and challenging comments from the anonymous reviewers helped us refining many arguments and improving significantly the quality of the document. The article profited also from valuable discussions during The 2nd International Conference on Education, organised by the University of Northern Colorado and held in Bangkok in April 2016.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Neither Crinson (2007) nor Fletcher (2017) work mentioned above deal with education. However, both of these authors do set as their methodological purpose the generation of causal knowledge, and hence their work falls within the scope of the current critique. Another tradition that endorses the possibility of external causation in qualitative research is Grounded Theory (Emmel, 2013). Kirchhoff & Lawrenz (2011) work is an example of this paradigm applied to causal educational research.

2 As Tikly (2015) quote at the beginning of this section suggests, CR represents a critical stance to empiricism in its broad sense. As the next section contends, endorsing CR principles intends hence not only to set a critique within the qualitative analyses traditions but also aims to establish researching rationales to confront mainstream quantitative school effectiveness research.

3 According to Archer (1995), conflation in this context entails working with a way of theorising ‘which either deny people all freedom because of their involvement in society or leave their freedom completely untrammelled by their social involvements’ (p. 4).

4 In Willmott's (2003) words, ‘statistical modelling cannot deal with components that are not qualitatively invariant (for example, children and teachers) or where they interact causally with one another, or where [stratified ] emergent powers rise or are dissolved through combinations and separations’ (p. 142).

5 The usage Roberts (2014) gives to the term refraction, which he differentiates from mere reflection or diffraction, seek to illustrate these dynamics. He explains that in ‘reflection one searches (…) a copy of ‘the same’, [while] [d]iffraction (…) highlights the need to explore how an object of analysis might create difference (…). On these grounds, the alternative (…) metaphor of ‘refraction’ better captures the dialectical processes that Bhaskar wishes to explore (…). ‘Refraction’ does not overstate the principle of difference at work in totalities but always ensures that difference is brought back to its dialectical relationship with unity and sameness’ (pp. 8,9. Original emphasis).

6 The following excerpt exemplifies it: ‘Moving back to the empirical level of reality, I used an NVivo-based analysis to note the particular dominance of three codes on the topic of agricultural issues: ‘Corporations,’ ‘farm size,’ and ‘lack of control’ (…). Through engagement with existing research and the observations of a few participants who discussed corporations’ responsibility for farmers’ lack of economic control, I was able to attribute the farm size issue to the deeper structural issue of corporatization’ (Fletcher, 2017, p. 190).

7 Such an argument sets an explicit critique to the advocates of Grounded Theory and their inductive advice of developing theories based on empirical information. From CR, one can problematise that rationale by suggesting that social mechanisms are so complex (e.g. multicausal, stratified) that ‘induction can only be used to validate (…) previously hypothesised general [laws]’. The problem lies is in the methodological narrative of induction, where ‘the origin of the hypothesis remains a complete mystery’ (Wuisman, 2005, p. 382).

8 The 2010–2014 wave of the World Values Survey (WVS) shows that 80 per cent of the respondents in the Colombian Caribbean expressed negative views of whether they will be able to provide a good education to their children. In Colombia as a whole, this figure is 75 per cent and 56 per cent for the Latin American region.

9 Readers can find further details about the information collection process in Parra (2018b). For the time being, this article’s focus is on the analysis process itself.

10 Empanada is a kind of fried fast food commonly sold in many streets of Colombian cities.

11 Familias en Acción is the biggest conditional cash transfer programme in the country.

12 While analysing in detail the findings of studies like Fletcher's (2017) is beyond the scope of this article, some ideas expressed in her findings section suggest that her stories are still too general to inform theories on how global social structures refract in specific locations to account for the challenges faced by Canadian female farmers. They require some fleshing out. For example, she says, ‘I concluded that gender ideology is a key causal mechanism shaping farm women’s work patterns' (p. 189). She also suggests that ‘Corporatization is a key causal mechanism behind farmers’ lack of control and is their main motivation for growing the farm to stay economically viable' (p. 190).

Additional information

Funding

This study received financial support from the Colombian Administrative Department of Science, Technology and Innovation (COLCIENCIAS) and the firm Econometría Consultores.

Notes on contributors

Juan David Parra

Juan David Parra Assistant professor at the Department of Education of Universidad del Norte. His research in the fields of education and policy evaluation combines disciplines like sociology, economics and political science and explores applied realist methodologies. Some of his work is available in international peer-reviewed publications such as the British Journal of the Sociology of Education, Third World Quarterly and Revista Brasileira de Educação, among others.

Elias Said-Hung

Elias Said-Hung Full professor at the Faculty of Education of Universidad Internacional de La Rioja (UNIR) and Director of the master's degree in inclusive and intercultural education. He is an expert in the design, implementation and monitoring of educational and communication projects. He has published extensively about the use of ICTs in education and the link between social media and society.

Juny Montoya-Vargas

Juny Montoya-Vargas Director of the Center for Applied Ethics of Universidad de los Andes, and former director of the Center for Research and Training in Education (CIFE), of the same university. She is an expert in the field of curriculum research and participated as a guest author in the second edition of the International Handbook of Curriculum Research.