Diffraction or reflection? Sketching the contours of two methodologies in educational research

Internationally, an interest is emerging in a growing body of work on what has become known as ‘diffractive methodologies’ drawing attention to ontological aspects of research. Diffractive methodologies have largely been developed in response to a dissatisfaction with practices of ‘reflexivity’, which are seen to be grounded in a representational paradigm and the epistemological aspects of research. While work on ‘reflexivity’ and ‘critical reflection’ has over the years become predominant in educational and social science research methodology literature, our reading indicates that there is still important conceptual work to be done putting these two practices – reflection and diffraction – in conversation with each other and exploring their continuities and breaks as well as examining the consequences for research methodologies in education. This article raises important questions about how the concepts of diffraction and reflection are defined and understood and discusses the methodological implications for educational research.     

Briging it all back home: some implications of recent science and technology studies for the classroom science teacher

In this paper, we support the validity of drawing from science studies to reshape science education. While true educational reform must involve alternative curricular structures, we stress that we do not propose here either a comprehensive curricular framework or a report on a pilot classroom project, as our research perspective comes from science studies rather than from education. Instead this paper is intended to encourage educators to draw from methodologies used in science studies to further their goals in education research and in classroom teaching. First, we examine theoretical connections and divergences between science studies and theories of education. Secondly, we discuss the benefits of teaching science as a social process and offer some suggestions that can be introduced by classroom teachers into pre-existing science curricula.     

Feminist methodologies and engineering education research

This paper introduces feminist methodologies in the context of engineering education research. It builds upon other recent methodology articles in engineering education journals and presents feminist research methodologies as a concrete engineering education setting in which to explore the connections between epistemology, methodology and theory. The paper begins with a literature review that covers a broad range of topics featured in the literature on feminist methodologies. Next, data from interviews with engineering educators and researchers who have engaged with feminist methodologies are presented. The ways in which feminist methodologies shape their research topics, questions, frameworks of analysis, methods, practices and reporting are each discussed. The challenges and barriers they have faced are then discussed. Finally, the benefits of further and broader engagement with feminist methodologies within the engineering education community are identified.     

Recycling Piaget: Posthumanism and making children’s knowledge matter

A growing body of research incorporates children’s perspectives into the research process. If we are to take children’s perspectives seriously in education research, research methodologies must be capable of addressing issues that matter to children. This article engages in a theoretical discussion that considers how a posthuman research methodology can support such an effort. Piaget’s early and lesser known qualitative studies on children’s conception of the world are re-read along with Karen Barad’s posthuman theory, using Catherine Malabou’s concept of plasticity. Through a plastic reading of Piaget and Barad, I consider how a posthuman theoretical framework might contribute to research seeking to access children’s perspectives. Before concluding, I reflect on some ethical concerns regarding posthuman research in education.     

Educators,learners and active learning methodologies

Picking up from a previous publication in IJLE, the primary objective of this article is to engage in a critical analysis of the concept and practice of ‘active’ (including ‘participatory’) learning as well as the usefulness to educators of ‘active learning methodologies’. Through a review of relevant literature and research, highlighting problems in theory, and an analysis of examples of active learning in practice, the article addresses a number of issues raised by previous attempts to promote active learning. It argues, in conclusion, that while promoting active learning is generally a good thing, the success of an active learning methodology depends not on methodology alone but, ultimately, on the constantly‐evolving, dialectical relationship between methodology and learners, mediated by the educator. Practical implications are that educators need not be over‐obsessed about questions of methodology, though it is important to experiment with new methods and make them a constant focus of discussion between educators and learners; further research could focus on the extent to which (and under what circumstances) educators and/or learners might change (or already have changed) their perceptions about different ways of teaching and learning.     

A Self-Study of a Thai Teacher Educator Developing a Better Understanding of PCK for Teaching about Teaching Science

In this study, I, the first author as a Thai teacher educator employed self-study as a research methodology to investigate my own understandings, questions, and curiosities about pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) for teaching science student teachers and the ways I engaged student teachers in a field-based science methods course designed to help them to develop their PCK. Qualitative data gathered included: the syllabi, handouts, work submitted by student teachers, student teachers’ journal entries, my journal entries, and video recordings of my classroom teaching. Data were analysed using an inductive process to identify ways in which I attempted to enhance student teachers’ PCK. The contributions of this study are insights generated to help teacher educators think about how to support and develop student teachers’ PCK. Some of these contributions are enhancing teacher educators’ PCK for teaching science teachers, developing PCK for teaching science, and designing a science methods course in science teacher preparation programmes.     

教育政策研究范式及其方法论探析

研究教育政策的研究范式具有重要意义。教育政策研究范式是具体的研究要素即研究主体、研究内容、研究过程及研究方法与研究方法论的有机结合。研究方法论包括直接方法论和间接方法论:直接方法论包括如何收集资料和如何分析资料两方面,它对教育政策研究范式起着直接的支撑作用。间接方法论是间接支撑教育政策研究范式研究的方法论,主要指的是西方传统的方法论即经验论、先验论和实践论,以及现象学、解释主义、批判理论、建构主义和符号互动等五个西方范式方法论。新范式方法论也为教育政策研究范式提供了间接方法论基础。     

优化现代教育科学功能施放现状的主要对策

优化现代教育科学功能施放现状的主要对策是完善教育科学理论自身；提高教育科学要素的水平；保持功能主体的独立性；优化教育工作者的素质；加强教育科学理论的操作化；完善教育研究工作的管理体制与机构。     

Supporting Teachers on Science‐focused School Trips: Towards an integrated framework of theory and practice

Although science centres and museums are important educational resources, school trips to these places are not often conducted in a manner that could maximise learning. In addressing this issue, a Framework for Museum Practice (FMP) is proposed, derived from the perspectives of Cultural Historical Activity Theory, theories of intrinsic motivation, and research into conceptual learning. It is hypothesised that this theoretically derived framework, if implemented by museum educators, can potentially lead to the creation of resources for teachers that would enable them to make better use of the learning opportunities afforded by school trips, and to maximise the impact on pupil learning, including their affective experience. This paper also describes how the framework was used to guide the development of resources to be used in conjunction with a science museum trip. The resources were tested by two primary school teachers and their classes, and the data were analysed for evidence of teacher and student behaviour consistent with the design principles in the FMP. Findings lend some empirical support for the FMP and suggest that it may offer a guide for the development of museum‐provided resources, which would have the potential to improve the utilisation by teachers of informal science institutions and, consequently, their impact on pupil learning.     

Visualizing Culturally Relevant Science Pedagogy Through Photonarratives of Black Middle School Teachers

This study situated in a Southern resegregated Black middle school involved four Black teachers and two White science educators’ use of photonarratives to envision culturally relevant science pedagogy. Two questions guided the study: (1) What community referents are important for conceptualizing culturally relevant practices in Black science classrooms? and (2) How do teachers’ photonarratives serve to open conversations and notions of culturally relevant science practices? The research methodologically drew upon memory-work, Black feminism, critical theory, visual methodology, and narrative inquiry as “portraiture.” Issues of positionality and identity proved to be central to this work, as three luminaries portray Black teachers’ insights about supports and barriers to teaching and learning science. The community referents identified were associated with church and its oral traditions, inequities of the market place in meeting their basic human needs, and community spaces.     

Identity Education: A Conceptual Framework for Educational Researchers and Practitioners

This article presents the concept of identity education (IdEd) referring to the purposeful involvement of educators with students’ identity-related processes or contents. We discuss why educators may consider identity important to the realization of educational goals and choose to target aspects of students’ identity in their pedagogical practice. We offer a broad theoretical framework that organizes and focuses the extensive yet scattered discourse on identity and education. Because IdEd is a concept that accommodates diverse educational perspectives and concerns, we outline several parameters that can assist educators in making sense of this diversity and provide a conceptual basis for pedagogical and curricular decision making. These parameters also provide researchers from different scholarly traditions a common framework for constructive dialogue and can serve as a basis for generating focused and productive research directions.     

Toward a Social Ontology for Science Education: Introducing Deleuze and Guattari’s assemblages

This essay’s main objective is to develop a theoretical, ontological basis for critical, social justice-oriented science education. Using Deleuze and Guattari’s notion of assemblages, rhizomes, and arborescent structures, this article challenges authoritarian institutional practices, as well as the subject of these practices, and offers a way for critical-social justice-oriented science educators and students to connect with sociopolitical contexts. Through diagramming institutional and community relationships using DG’s theory of assemblages, we envision new ontological spaces that bridge social and material entities. A conceptualization of science education through DG’s philosophy of rhizomes and assemblages allows educators to merge critical, post-foundational perspectives with questions of ontology: not just what exists, but what could exist in terms of human social organizations (governments and community groups), inorganic matter, microorganisms, and plant/animal populations.     

Insights into the Integration of Traditional Filipino Arts in Art and Design Education: Voices from the Academe

This article presents the first segment of a qualitative study that explores the feasibility of integrating traditional arts in Philippine art and design education. The views of educators on traditional arts were sought to provide an impetus for the study and a springboard for discussion regarding the relevance of traditional Filipino arts in a predominantly Westernised educational system. The educators’ views and opinions on the central question, ‘Why and how should the study of traditional Filipino arts be integrated in the art and design programme?’ will be used to guide a trial integration of the learning of traditional arts in tertiary art and design classes. They will form part of the multiple perspectives that will be gathered from various sectors throughout the course of research. This phenomenological study, on the whole, seeks to uncover the potentials of traditional arts as a rich resource for learning, particularly for students of art and design.     

The possibility and importance of postperspectival working

This article addresses the issue of the plurality of theories and perspectives in education research, and introduces postperspectival theory as a means to work with this plurality. Three pieces of research are discussed, all focusing on children’s learning of numbers, one taking a cognitivist perspective, the other two a more sociocultural perspective. Drawing on poststructuralist theory, the article addresses questions of how we make sense of research from multiple perspectives – in particular, how researchers might respond to apparent contradictions that arise when working across perspectives. A proposal for a means of working towards a synthesis of theory, using the example of children’s learning of number, is proposed. An argument is made that a postperspectival approach is first of all possible, and secondly an important tool in the construction in the development and application of educational theory.     

Using Computer Simulations for Promoting Model-based Reasoning

Scientific reasoning is particularly pertinent to science education since it is closely related to the content and methodologies of science and contributes to scientific literacy. Much of the research in science education investigates the appropriate framework and teaching methods and tools needed to promote students’ ability to reason and evaluate in a scientific way. This paper aims (a) to contribute to an extended understanding of the nature and pedagogical importance of model-based reasoning and (b) to exemplify how using computer simulations can support students’ model-based reasoning. We provide first a background for both scientific reasoning and computer simulations, based on the relevant philosophical views and the related educational discussion. This background suggests that the model-based framework provides an epistemologically valid and pedagogically appropriate basis for teaching scientific reasoning and for helping students develop sounder reasoning and decision-taking abilities and explains how using computer simulations can foster these abilities. We then provide some examples illustrating the use of computer simulations to support model-based reasoning and evaluation activities in the classroom. The examples reflect the procedure and criteria for evaluating models in science and demonstrate the educational advantages of their application in classroom reasoning activities.     

Reviews of research in rural schools and their communities: Analytical perspectives and a new agenda

This chapter responds to the research questions posed in the introductory chapter on the status and nature of educational research on rural schools and their community relationships. Drawing on the national reviews, we discuss the quality of the research focusing on its themes and questions, theoretical perspectives, and research design and methodology. The conclusions indicate substantial hiatuses, and call for greater use of the local voice, the life-world perspective, longitudinal and comparative studies, and multiple purposively sampled case studies. Internationally, while first-hand sources on the cultural contributions of rural schools exist, these must be accessed before documentary studies of central policies over-write such history. Finally, a new research agenda is formulated.     

UNDERSTANDING THE ALTERNATIVE CONCEPTIONS OF PRE-SERVICE SECONDARY SCIENCE TEACHERS ABOUT TIDAL PHENOMENA BASED ON TOULMIN’S ARGUMENTATION

Constructing explanations and participating in argumentative discourse are seen as essential practices of scientific inquiry. The objective of this study was to explore the elements and origins of pre-service secondary science teachers’ alternative conceptions of tidal phenomena based on the elements used in Toulmin’s Argument Model through qualitative research. The data were collected from three pre-service secondary school teachers (D.-K. University, Teachers’ Colleges, junior and senior) in the Republic of Korea using a variety of qualitative research methods. We present three pre-service teachers as examples of 20 pre-service teachers for determining each pre-service teacher whether the pattern of his/her responses to all of the questions investigating a given concept can be explained by the consistent use of components of argument. The results of this study showed “the model with the Earth’s center at rest” backing their warrants as an element of Toulmin’s Argument Model. As a result, science educators must explicitly address these presuppositions or implicit beliefs and must help the students form links between their everyday experiences and scientific knowledge. Therefore, educators must be aware of the influence of students’ presuppositions and must use acceptable scientific concepts (the center of mass of the Earth–Moon system) based on argumentation to guide their construction of scientific concepts.     

Sorting Out the Roles of Research in the Improvement of Practice

This paper discusses the effectiveness of research‐based educational approaches on classroom practice. In order to help educators maximize benefits from research in improving practice, it is important to inform them of the nature and roles of research. This essay begins by discussing current cynicism regarding the usefulness of research‐based strategies in the field of education. Because of the large body of conflicting “research‐based” information, many educators are finding themselves confused and alienated by the phrase “research shows.” Using examples of high‐quality research that utilizes diverse methodologies, a framework is presented for thinking about various types of research and their implications.