Fiction written under Oath?: Essays in Philosophy and Educational Research

218 Pages·2003·3.079 MB·English

by  David Bridges (auth.)

FICTION WRITTEN UNDER OATH?
Philosophy and Education
VOLUME 10
Series Editor:
Robert E. Floden, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, U.S.A.
Kenneth R. Howe, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, U.S.A.
Editorial Board
David Bridges, Centre for Applied Research in Education, University of East Anglia,
Norwich, UK.
Jim Garrison, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, U.S.A.
Nel Noddings, Stanford University, CA, U.S.A.
Shirley A. Pendlebury, University ofWitwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
Denis C. Philhps, Stanford University, CA, U.S.A.
Kenneth A. Strike, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, U.S.A.
SCOPE OF THE SERIES
There are many issues in education that are highly philosophical in character. Among these
issues are the nature of human cognition; the types of warrant for human behefs; the moral
and epistemological foundations of educational research; the role of education in
developing effective citizens; and the nature of a just society in relation to the educational
practices and policies required to foster it. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine any issue in
education that lacks a philosophical dimension.
The sine qua non of the volumes in the series is the identification of the expressly
philosophical dimensions of problems in education coupled with an expressly
philosophical approach to them. Within this boundary, the topics—as well as the audiences
for which they are intended—vary over a broad range, from volumes of primary interest
to philosophers to others of interest to a more general audience of scholars and students of
education.
The titles published in this series are listed at the end of this volume.
Fiction written under Oath?
Essays in Philosophy and Educational Research
by
DAVID BRIDGES
Centre for Applied Research in Education,
University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom
KLUWER ACADEMIC PUBLISHERS
DORDRECHT / BOSTON / LONDON
A C.I.P. Catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN 1-4020-3762-7
Published by Kluwer Academic Publishers,
RO. Box 17, 3300 AA Dordrecht, The Netherlands.
Sold and distributed in North, Central and South America
by Kluwer Academic Publishers,
101 Philip Drive, Norwell, MA 02061, U.S.A.
In all other countries, sold and distributed
by Kluwer Academic Publishers,
RO. Box 322, 3300 AH Dordrecht, The Netherlands.
Printed on acid-free paper
All Rights Reserved
© 2003 Kluwer Academic Publishers
No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording
or otherwise, without written permission from the Pubhsher, with the exception
of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered
and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work.
Printed in the Netherlands.
To my wife
Angela
with love
for putting up with a philosophical husband
for all these years
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements xi
Chapter I: A 'biographical positioning' 1
Chapter 2: Introduction: philosophising about educational research 13
Philosophising and educational research 13
Philosophising about educational research 13
Introduction to the chapters which follow 16
Chapter 3: Philosophising as and in educational research 21
Philosophy and educational research 21
Philosophising as research 21
Conceptual clarification and educational research 24
The logic and the psychology of the development of theory 26
Dissolving the empirical/philosophical divide 28
Conclusion 31
Chapter 4: The discipline(s) of educational research 33
Educational research as disciplined enquiry 33
Education is a field of (applied?) research 33
Educational research draws on established disciplines of enquiry and
representation 36
Discipline and post-disciplinarity 40
Disciplines: necessary but not sufficient 42
Practitioner/action research and discipline based enquiry 45
Chapter 5: Educational theory, practice and research: pragmatic
perspectives 51
Introduction 51
Pragmatism 51
The limits of pragmatism 56
Extending the 'experiencing nature' 59
Theory revisited 62
Research revisited - and conclusion 64
Chapter 6: Educational research: pursuit of truth or flight into fancy? 67
Introduction 67
Statements, propositions and truth 68
Counter-examples 69
Other forms of speech act 69
The psycho dynamics of language 69
Retreating to the primeval grunt 69
vii
CONTENTS
Propositions of contested status 70
Lying and deceit 70
Being mistalcen 70
Tiie denial of trutii 71
Five theories of truth 71
(1) Truth as correspondence 72
(2) Truth as coherence 74
(3) Truth as 'what works' 75
(4) Truth as consensus 76
(5) Truth as warranted belief 78
Theories of truth and paradigms of educational research 80
Truth and constructivism in fourth generation evaluation 81
Truth and the post-modern researcher 84
Chapter 7: Narratives, fiction and the magic of the real 89
Qualitative research and literary form 89
Two contrasting narratives 91
The real 94
The real as the gold standard 96
The real and the unasked question 97
Fiction and falsification 98
The magic of the real 100
Conclusion 102
Postscript: a 'research report' in a work of fiction 103
Chapter 8: Narratives in history, fiction and educational research 105
History and historical fiction: some resemblance 105
History as literature written under handicap 107
'Wie es eigentlich gewesen' - 'scientific' history and the break with literature 108
History as narrative (again) 110
The distinction between the historical and fictional narrative 1 11
Ending 113
Chapter 9: Quality and relevance in educational research 115
Introduction 115
Quality 116
Relevance 120
Impact 122
Quality again 125
Scholarly rigour 127
Imagination, fecundity and vision 128
Style 130
Ethical considerations 131
Conclusion 132
Vlll
CONTENTS
Chapter 10: 'Nothing about us without us': ethics and outsider research 133
Introduction 133
Only insiders can properly represent the experience of a community 134
Outsiders import damaging frameworks of understanding 137
Outsiders exploit insider participants in the communities they research 142
Outsiders' research disempowers insiders 144
Practitioner research: the answer? 148
Chapter 11: Research for sale: moral market or moral maze? 153
Introduction 153
The proposition 156
Epistemic drift and the publication of research 157
A moral argument against restrictive ownership of educational research 159
Knowledge and politics 160
The moral maze 164
Educational research and 'the delinquent academy' 166
Summary and conclusion 169
Chapter 12: 'Fiction written under oath'? Ethics and epistemology in
educational research 171
Introduction 171
Ethical principles constitute an obstacle to validity and truth in research 172
Ethical principles provide the necessary social or interpersonal conditions for
the achievement of validity and truth in research 173
Ethical principles provide necessary conditions for the quality of individual
research and hence the validity and truthfulness of the claims which issue
from it 174
Ethical principles provide both the necessary and sufficient conditions for the
validity and truthfulness of the outcomes of research 176
Chapter 13: From philosophising about research to researching
philosophy: reflections on a reflective log 181
Introduction 181
Writing as part of a personal story 182
Personal and professional distractions 182
Continuity and antecedents 183
Inactivity and the unconscious 183
Writing as a social practice 184
Networking and intellectual community 184
Enquiry made public 185
Writing as a literary activity 187
Personal voice and published voices 187
A literary construction 188
Writing as an attempt to satisfy (methodo)iogical requirements 189
The intellectualisation of perplexity 189
Argument and counter argument 190
ix
CONTENTS
Observing some relevant distinctions 190
Representation of the field 191
Conclusion: so what I have learned? 191
References 193
Index 207
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I am grateful for the support I have received in writing this book from the Centre for
Applied Research in Education and, more widely, the School of Education and
Professional Development in the University of East Anglia - and especially the
year's half-time study leave (in parallel with my half-time secondment as Director of
the Association of Universities in the East of England) which made it possible. I was
privileged during this year to enjoy a Visiting Fellowship at St Edmund's College
Cambridge and am most grateful to the Master and Fellows for their hospitality,
interest and support during this time.
Some of the material in this book has appeared previously in print, though in all
cases it has been revised (sometimes substantially so) in the form in which it appears
here. I am grateful, nevertheless, to the following for permission to draw from my
published material:
• Carfax Publishing/Taylor and Francis (www.tandf.co.uk) for material from
'Philosophy and educational research: a reconsideration of epistemological
boundaries,' Cambridge Journal of Education, vol. 27, no. 2, pp. 177-190
(in chapter 3); for 'Research for sale: moral market or moral maze?' British
Educational Research Journal, vol. 24, no. 5, pp. 593-608 (in chapter 11);
and 'Educational research: pursuit of truth or flight into fancy?' British
Educational Research Journal, vol. 25, pp. 597-616 (in chapter 6);
• Blackwells for 'The ethics of outsider research,' Journal of Philosophy of
Education, vol. 35, no. 3, pp. 371-387 (in chapter 10);
• Falmer for extracts from 'School based teacher education: the poverty of
pragmatism,' in (ed.) McBride, R., Teacher education policy: some issues
arising from research and practice, pp. 247-256 (in chapter 5);
• SoPhi for 'Narratives in history, fiction and educational research,' in
Huttunen, R., Heikkinen, L. J. and Syrjala, L. (eds) Narrative Research:
voices of teachers cmd philosophers (in chapter 8);
• Triangle for extracts from 'Professionalism, authenticity and action
research,' Educational Action Research, vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 451-465 (in
chapter 11) and for 'Writing a research paper: reflections on a reflective
log,' Educational Action Research, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 221-234 (in chapter
13).
In addition, I am grateful to Sage Publications Inc. for permission to include an
extended quotation from Peter Clough's 'Crises of schooling and "the crisis of
representation": the story of Rob,' in Qualitative Inquiry, vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 428-448,
copyright 1999 by Sage Publications Inc.
Many people have contributed to the ideas explored in the chapters which follow
and sustained my interest in exploring them. Some at least of these contributions are
acknowledged in the 'biographical positioning' chapter which follows. I would like
additionally to thank my anonymous reviewers for their helpful advice. If I have not
XI