Scientific Culture and Educational Research

Educational Research, The Field of

“…Some attribute these critiques to the interdisciplinary nature of the field and the complexity of building a 'distinctive research community' (Lagemann, 1999: 10-11). While observing these challenges, others (Feuer et al, 2002;Levine, 2003;Ranis and Walters, 2004) have emphasized that the strengths and weaknesses of education research are not unique to it or to the social sciences. 4.…”

Reproducing or Challenging Power in the Questions We Ask and the Methods We Use: A Framework for Activist Research in Urban Education

“…Often, collaboration with practitioners is sought as a way to increase the likelihood that research findings will be implemented in practice (Feuer, Towne, & Shavelson, 2002;LeCompte, 1995). While such collaborations reduce the power disparities between researcher and subject, many of these efforts stem from pragmatic concerns about implementation rather than political commitments to the positivist critique outlined above.…”

On generating knowledge in service to society1

“…In an elaboration of the National Research Council (NRC) report that they edited, Towne and Shavelson (along with Michael Feuer, executive director of the Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education at the NRC) argued that the NRC's concern with defining the characteristics of high quality scientific research in education and promoting a scientific culture of educational research that is publicly accountable can and should be kept separate from the federal government's efforts to legislate acceptable educational research practice (e.g., as evident in the NCLB legislation, the IES and WWC) (Feuer et al, 2002a). They also claimed that if the NRC's findings 'happen to coincide with the viewpoints of federal officials, so be it' (Feuer et al, 2002b). Perhaps because the national academies are a quasigovernmental agency obligated to provide independent scientific advice and evaluation to any US government agency that requests it and, thus, they seek to maintain independence while not foreclosing options for productive interaction with federal officials, this public stance on the part of the authors is to be expected.…”

“…Originally proposed as something like a third way that would resolve the tension between those insisting on exclusive allegiance to either qualitative or quantitative methodologies, the idea of mixed methods has taken on new significance in the current climate where experimentation is again coming to the forefront as the favored methodology for educational research. Although the popularity of mixed methods research is by no means confined to the community of researchers in the US, this brief article unfolds against the backdrop of the way mixed methods research is being positioned in the US debate about the scientific adequacy of educational research (see Erickson & Gutierrez, 2002;Feuer et al, 2002b;Mosteller & Boruch, 2002;Eisenhart & Towne, 2003;Lather, 2004). The debate arose in large part in reactions to a report of the US National Research Council 198 T. A. Schwandt (2002), Scientific research in education.…”