Please share any questions raised by this book and any
other thoughts you have. While I hope you learned a lot about pragmatism, I am
particularly interested in how the book served to get you thinking about the
nature of knowledge, what there is to know and how all of this relates to
educational research.
8 comments:
Dana Brookover-
I have been grappling with how pragmatism applies not only to educational research, but also more specifically to my discipline (more to come on that November 14th, guys). I never took a philosophy course in undergrad, but I did take Theories of Counseling in my masters program and am in a theories class now. I keep trying to match different theories of counseling with what their overall epistemological theories would be. It's not often expressely (actually I'm not sure if I have ever seen any of the words on our bubble chart in my texts) written in the texts.. but obviously behaviorism (not even mentioned as a therapy really in my two classes, that was more history of psych) is on the external relations side. Psychoanalytic therapy is very internal relations. Existential Therapists create a new therapy for each client, so that would be similar to poststructuralism perhaps (multiple truths). From there, it's harder for me because I am not as familiar with the other epistemologies. Maybe Cognitive Behavioral Therapists would hold a more post positivist view; reality exists and we may not understand it perfectly but we try. They are very "evidence-based". And then certainly therapy research as a whole is striving for a more positivist approach. Much like educational researchers, counseling psychology researchers want to assert themselves as a "hard" science as much as possible.. There is a constant search to label something as a Evidence-Based Practice or Therapy (EBP/EBT). It's a bit ironic in a field that also asserts how every individual is different and cultural considerations are key, especially as the relationship common factors have been shown time and again to be the strongest factor on "success." But as the last chapter points out, making scientific action more human is key. I think qualitative studies in counseling are great for Dewey's perspective of counselors (i.e., educators/practitioners) cooperating with theory to make it hopefully applicable to other counselors and clients.
Also I get the sense Dewey is asking if the means to the end are worth it. I think there are certainly therapy techniques and theories you can use that may get the result society or a therapist wants, but at the expense of the client(s). We spoke in theories class recently about Existential Therapy getting a bad reputation because it doesn't eliminate anxiety as well as the other therapies.. but Existentialists realize anxiety (more specifically death anxiety) can lead to living a more fulfilling life in the long run.
As far as questions, I am looking forward to learning more about the other epistemologies, even if just briefly, as well fill out our class chart. I think that will help me fit these ideas into my discipline and future research.
Hi, everyone. Cat here:
Every time I revisit this book I feel a little more at ease about dismantling the barrier I’ve constructed between theory and practice. At the school where I worked for many years, teachers are officially called “teacher-researchers,” and now I think I have a much better sense of what that means. I also have a good deal more empathy towards teachers I would have once called “resistant” or "reluctant" (words that now seem mean-spirited, if not undemocratic). The particular children and families teachers work with, a teacher’s beliefs about learning and children, even the ghosts of a teacher’s own schooling experience - these things matter to their practice and inform how educational research might look in their classroom. (I still feel I’m missing the mark. It sounds like a model of "applied science" in the classroom. Argh! I’m doing it again!)
Maybe this will help:
“The final reality of educational science is to be found in the minds of educators (which in turn implies that teachers and other educators are not simply passive consumers of educational knowledge but are as much the creators of educational knowledge, even when they are drawing from research conducted by others because their very act of problem solving is a process of inquiry)” (p. 113).
So a goal might be to achieve intersubjectivity between educational researcher and classroom teacher. And why not, if both are practitioners? Inquiry is inquiry is inquiry. And I need to relinquish the futility of working towards perfection and understand that doing so does not negate the pursuit of democracy.
Cat, I love your comments about the transactional approach to theory and practice. Since both are meaningful experiences within educational research, we must support both sides and construct valuable ways for them to work together without bias or barrier. Great points!
The biggest thing I have learned from this book was well-said on p. 114. While I do feel that, like Dana, I am constructing a meaningful way to clearly see different ways of thinking and paradigms in the research and actions I encounter, I have found pragmatism to be "as much a way of un-thinking certain false dichotomies, certain assumptions, certain traditional practices and ways of doing things, and in this it can open up new possibilities of thought." Perhaps I have been somewhat converted to pragmatism, but at the very least, it has been a unique lens through which to deconstruct and reconstruct my understanding of the world and the nature of what we know.
Pg 107:
1. Pragmatism provides us with a different way to conceive of the relationship between knowledge and action.
2. Pragmatism provides us with a different way to think of the relationship between theory and practice and, more specifically, the relationship between educational research and educational practice.
3. Pragmatism provides us with a different way to think about the objects of our knowledge.
"Objects of knowledge are instruments for action, and different objects, different worlds, provide us with different opportunities and possibilities for action."
4. Pragmatism provides us with a different way to think about objectivity and relativity.
The idea of intersubjectivity, especially in educational research and the social sciences, has been a helpful viewpoint to be aware of in this field. The quote, "the scope of intelligence is not restricted to the domain of means, techniques, and instruments but includes also the domain of ends, purposes, and values," struck me as a bridge of intersubjectivity between the hard sciences and soft sciences.
The transactional approach of speaks to my style specifically since the human variable is not of a replicable nature. This forces us to have multiple method views of research and application given the different and sometimes difficult outcomes of our applied research on human action. Human behavior itself, while habitual at times, is not fully predictable. Yet, it a range of options can usually be prepared for given proper knowledge of the outcomes. This is where I see the marrying of research and application as a pragmatic point of view.
Yingying
This last chapter gave me a comprehensive and integral view of how pragmatism apples to educational research. The author demonstrated the concept he described in the first four chapter, the relationship between knowledge and action, theory and practice, objects of knowledge and relativity, and how they provide different ways to think about research questions, methods and researchers. In addition, I really like how the chapter describes the relationship between educational research and practice. “not one of application but of cooperation and coordination.” “…educational research provides educational practices with receipts so that educational practice can be “perfected”…
Also, my question is answered. Educational research is not about representativeness (the sample is representative of a population) and generality. “Educational research can only ever show us what has been possible in a specific situation, it can never tell us once and for all what to do”.
Erin Hanley
I am honestly still digesting a few components of this text. We have talked in class about a few instances where Dewey may contradict himself. I will probably have to sit with the text a little longer to better digest it. It is something I believe I understand broadly, but trip up over its application. I do agree with Cat as far as the book helping me better navigate theory and practice. One of my favorite quotes from the book is, "the world of science and the world of common sense should not be two competing worlds" (p. 106). This makes me think that a possible goal of educational research could be to take the science that is studied, and disseminate those findings to as many people as possible, in ways they will understand. Maybe Dewey was saying here that our knowledge should not be our knowledge alone, that we should make it our responsibility to share it. This quote also kickstarted some brainstorming for my discipline paper, though I still have no idea what I consider my discipline to be. I do not want to pigeonhole myself in, or weigh myself down by being too broad. The idea of knowledge "being in the muscles" is still one of my favorite things I have read all year (p. 11). Maybe I need to couple this advice with Becker and just, well, start writing.
Rachel Regal
This my first in-depth introduction to pragmatism. I continue to go back to the basics we stress in class: getting rid of dualities, linking back to naturalism/Darwinism/transactionalism, and probing research questions by asking ‘for what purpose or use’? Overall, this book challenged me to take a step back and critically analyze my role as researcher and educator. Recently, a Facebook memory popped up from ten years ago where I lamented how “cold” research can be and how my role was so distant and ungiving to my participants. Now, after reading this book, I wonder if it was not the paradigm I was working in that was the problem, not the research itself. Pragmatism gives me hope that to be engaged in research means to be deeply connected to the world and create action while being mindful of what impact our research while have. I like that pragmatism seeks to be embedded in action and practice, rather than separate in an ivory tower (although I’m open to dissent on that one for sure!). I also enjoy that pragmatism seeks to allow room for more uncertainty and exploration. It is a never-ending quest rather than a destination. I also read recently about how medicine (science) used to be magic- and perhaps that magic is still essential, if we think about miraculous healings or things we can’t explain. I don’t know that pragmatism accounts for those awe and wonder experiences but I do think it approaches that closer than others like empiricism. I still think there are things we can't know, and that might be a good thing.
I am still confused as to how all this looks in educational research (and practice). I am beginning to see a little more clearly, but still find myself trying to apply major research paradigms (like quant, qual, program evaluation, community-based participatory vs. lab-based).
Andrea Moreau
I would have to agree with Erin’s assessment of Pragmatism. While I appreciate its value in educational research, I’m not sure it is the philosophical lens I will use for my PhD research. I find myself leaning towards the postmodernist/ feminist philosophical viewpoint. Biesta states that “it is up to educational practitioners to use the outcomes of research in their own practical inquiries and in the judgments involved in their problem-solving. This, as we have seen, is why Dewey argues that the final reality of educational science is to be found in the minds of educators.” (pg 111). This argument is the foundation in my struggle to personally use pragmatism in educational research. I find the statement that the ‘final reality of education science is to be found in the minds of educators’ to be problematic. When we look at the make-up of public school education in this country, the differences between student populations and education administration cannot be ignored. I find pragmatism has ignored the socioeconomic implications and biases in education. While I have no doubt that all most all educators are in education for the right reasons, we cannot ignore the unconscious biases that educators hold. I didn’t find anything in this book that specifically addresses the issue of unconscious biases and how they can greatly affect education and educational research.
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