Perspectivism: An Alternative Research Epistemology for the 21st Century Schools

Educational researchers have urged school practitioners to shift from isolated patterns of work to a communal negotiation of meaning in order to overcome problems in an uncertain environment. Nevertheless, researchers, in their inquiry processes, are still bounded within a net of epistemological premises (from objectivism on the one hand to skepticism on the other) that withhold a communal learning of schoolwork at this turbulent time. To overcome this impediment, perspectivism, as an alternative research epistemology, is presented. Perspectivism acknowledges that the nature of any entity is evoked from the relationship it maintains with other entities in the world. This research epistemology increases the burden and responsibility on educational researchers, requiring to negotiate meaning through continuous discursive means in the scientific community.