SAGE Journal Articles

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Journal Article 1: Biesta, G. (2015). On the two cultures of educational research, and how we might move ahead: Reconsidering the ontology, axiology and praxeology of education. European Educational Research Journal14, 11–22.

Abstract: In this paper I focus on a split within the field of educational research between those who approach education as an activity or practice governed by cause–effect relationships and those who see education as a human event of communication, meaning making and interpretation. Rather than just arguing against the former and in favour of the latter view, I outline a way forward in which the question of how education works and how it can be made to work better is considered a legitimate question, but where the answer to this question takes into consideration the specific nature of educational processes and practices. In order to do so I explore the ontology, the axiology and the praxeology of education through a discussion of the question of how education actually works (ontology), the question of what education might work for (axiology), and the question of what this means for making education work and making it work better in the everyday practice of teaching (praxeology). I preface this discussion with observations about the differing ways in which education as a field of academic scholarship has developed in Europe, in order to highlight that ‘educational research’ exists in at least two distinctively different configurations, and to show how the way in which the field has established itself in the German-speaking world might provide helpful resources for conceiving of educational research in a more educational manner.

Journal Article 2: Feuer, M. J., Towne, L., & Shavelson, R. J. (2002). Scientific culture and educational researchEducational Researcher31, 4–14.

Abstract: The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 requires federal grantees to use their funds on evidence-based strategies. The law includes definitions of research quality, which are also featured prominently in the administration’s strategic plan and in draft language for the re-authorization of the U.S. Office of Educational Research and Improvement. These initiatives pose a rare opportunity and formidable challenge to the field: What are the most effective means of stimulating more and better scientific educational research? In this article, which draws on a recently released National Research Council report, the authors argue that the primary emphasis should be on nurturing and reinforcing a scientific culture of educational research. Although the article focuses on scientific research as an important form of educational scholarship, the call for building a stronger sense of research community applies broadly. Specifically, the authors argue that the development of a scientific culture rests with individual researchers, supported by leadership in their professional associations and a federal educational research agency.

Journal Article 3: Wagner, J. (1997). The unavoidable intervention of educational research: A framework for reconsidering researcher-practitioner cooperationEducational Researcher26, 13–22.

Abstract: As a framework for stimulating further, empirical investigation, I describe three different forms of direct researcher practitioner cooperation: data-extraction agreements, clinical partnerships, and co-learning agreements. Each form reflects different social arrangements, inquiry and reporting strategies, and operating assumptions, and each form also has different implications for supporting educational research and reform. Distinctions between these three forms illustrate some of the unavoidable ways in which educational research projects are social interventions in the lives of project participants. This prospect raises questions about how researchers and practitioners could be better prepared to design them as such.