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ERIC Number: EJ845894
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2009
Pages: 19
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1077-8004
EISSN: N/A
Isolating Science from the Humanities: The Third Dogma of Educational Research
Howe, Kenneth R.
Qualitative Inquiry, v15 n4 p766-784 2009
The demand for scientifically-based educational research has fostered a new methodological orthodoxy exemplified by documents such as the National Research Council's "Scientific Research in Education" and "Advancing Scientific Research in Education" and American Educational Research Association's "Standards for Reporting on Empirical Social Science Research in AERA Journals". This article criticizes the new orthodoxy as being a throwback to positivist reductionism and the "two dogmas" of educational research: the quantitative/ qualitative incompatibility thesis and fact/value dichotomy. It then criticizes the new orthodoxy for fostering a "third dogma" of educational research cut from the same cloth as the first two: the empirical science/humanities dualism. The article advances the view that no fundamental epistemological dividing line can be drawn between the empirical sciences and the humanities and that, accordingly, empirical research in education should not be cordoned off from the humanities, particularly their focus on values. It concludes with several observations about the problems and prospects for interdisciplinary research in education across the empirical science/humanities divide. (Contains 13 notes.)
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A