An anthropologist’s reflections on defining quality in education research

Abstract

In the USA there is a contemporary discourse of crisis about the state of education and a parallel discourse that lays a large portion of the blame onto the poor quality of educational research. The solution offered is ‘scientific research’. This article presents critiques of the core assumptions of the scientific research as secure argument. These assumptions include: a misleading metaphorical conflation of education and medicine; an equating of ‘scientific’ with ‘empirical’ or ‘rigorous’; a linear understanding of the relationship of research to practice; a parochialism that ignores research from other countries; a confusion of research quality with utility; and a naive belief in progress—‘better living (and learning) through science’. Ironically, science‐based practice is put forth as the solution to what ails education in the USA in the absence of scientific evidence that such an approach to educational reform is effective.