Assumptions underlying quantitative and qualitative research: Implications for institutional research

For institutional researchers, the choice to use a quantitative or qualitative approach to research is dictated by time, money, resources, and staff. Frequently, the choice to use one or the other approach is made at the method level. Choices made at this level generally have rigor, but ignore the underlying philosophical assumptions structuring beliefs about methodology, knowledge, and reality. When choosing a method, institutional researchers also choose what they believe to be knowledge, reality, and the correct method to measure both. The purpose of this paper is to clarify and explore the assumptions underlying quantitative and qualitative research. The reason for highlighting the assumptions is to increase the general level of understanding and appreciation of epistemological issues in institutional research. Articulation of these assumptions should foster greater awareness of the appropriateness of different kinds of knowledge for different purposes.     

教育研究中定量与定性研究法的比较

加强教育研究方法的研究，是提高教育研究质量与水平的基础，定量研究与定性研究是教育研究中的两种主要方法，但不是两种对立的方法，本力图在比较研究的基础上，说明两种方法应该结合使用。     

Black Liberation research: qualitative methodological considerations

Abstract

This article provides an overview of critical qualitative considerations for Black Liberation Research. The methodological considerations focus on: (a) resistance research as paradigm, (b) researcher positionality, (c) naming Black deprivation as the problem of study, (d) situating Black Liberation as the aim of analysis, and (e) centering emotions as humanizing methods. Taken together, the articles in this special issue provide an example of how Black Liberation Research can support the #BLM movement and simultaneously seek to disrupt Black deprivation in the academy.     

Issues and trends in qualitative research: Potential for developing countries

This article builds upon previous work carried out by the authors in the field of comparative and international education, with special reference to the implications of globalisation and contemporary methodological trends for educational research in developing countries. Distinctions are drawn between methodology and methods in exploring the potential and limitations of qualitative strategies for researchers, policy-makers and development assistance agencies. A review of contemporary trends and developments draws attention to a related volume of new work, the value of case studies of educational practice, the importance of context and the dangers of uncritical international transfer. The article also examines linkages between post-modernism and the interpretivist paradigm, issues of data analysis and validation, and the possible benefits to be gained from practitioner research and evaluation in the process of research capacity building in developing countries.     

Doing qualitative research: the craft of naturalistic inquiry

Certain aspects of Thai Buddhism offer interesting support for some key concepts in action research. In particular, Buddhist notions of ‘insight’ and ‘mindfulness’ are helpful in clarifying the ‘reflection’ phase in the well-known action research ‘spiral’, and the concept of ‘Dependent Origination’ can be seen as embodying the whole action research cycle.     

Using blogs in qualitative educational research: an exploration of method

When compared with wider social research, qualitative educational research has been relatively slow to take up online research methods (ORMs). There is some very notable research in the area but, in general, ORMs have not achieved wide applicability in qualitative educational contexts apart from research that is inherently linked to the Internet, for example, research on educational technologies or students' online behaviour. This paper demonstrates how ORMs can be useful in qualitative research projects. It describes how on-going, reflective, qualitative data were collected using a popular, community-based online tool – blogs. The research project that utilized this approach aimed to trace how a group of international students in the United Kingdom responded to their new environment over six months. This article attempts to provide a new understanding on the use of blogs as a tool for data collection.     

Roles and relationships in qualitative research on teachers' thinking: A reconsideration

Much research about teachers and teaching is still planned and conducted by researchers who give little thought or effort to the involvement and learning of the teachers who are their subjects. Whilst this continues to be the predominant research paradigm, and until collaborative networks between educators from different sectors of the professions are established, the traditional separation between academics - those who research - and teachers - those who teach - will remain, and the usefulness of research to both communities will continue to be subject to critical comment. This paper proposes a set of different roles and relationships for researchers involved in qualitative research in which researchers may also be consultants, and in which affective, human-relating skills hold the same importance as the more traditional technical skills of the researcher.     

Education and qualitative research in Mexico: issues and insights from the field

This co-editors’ introduction provides a context for the special issue on qualitative research in Mexico and introduces the five papers selected for publication. Papers present findings from qualitative research that explore the topics of teaching; school leadership; language education policy; and women in traditionally male, postsecondary engineering programs.     

论教育研究中量化研究与质化研究的结合

在教育研究整个发展历程中,存在两种研究范式：量化研究与质化研究。本文结合这两种研究范式的历史发展,在比较它们的差异基础上,探求如何将量化研究与质化研究结合起来,以促进教育研究事业的繁荣。