Epistemological Threads in the Fabric of Pedagogical Research
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2012
Journal / Book Title
Teachers College Record
Abstract
Context: Over the past 15 year, a philosophical renaissance has emerged within the educational research literature, raising conundrums about the nature of knowledge and how to acquire it. To date, such philosophical conundrums have not been directly posed in relation to pedagogical research, particularly our understanding of what constitutes quality in teaching. Purpose: Our purpose in writing this article is to focus a philosophical lens on quality teaching in general, and the High-Quality Teaching (HQT) study in particular, an examination of what teachers do to help fourth and fifth-grade students succeed m reading and mathematics. Our intent is to demonstrate how such philosophical scrutiny can lead to a fuller understanding of high-quality teaching in its varied manifestations. Research Design: This article is an analytical essay. We first identify multiple philosophical threads (epistemological perspectives on knowledge) that can be used to characterize education broadly, and teaching specifically. We next demonstrate how these epistemological perspectives have informed our understandings of quality teaching, the nature of mathematics and reading education, and the use of different research paradigms to investigate teaching and learning. Finally, we apply these epistemological threads to the HQT study retrsopectively, highlighting how identifying them helps us Utter understand our mini work and the effects of the decisions that we made. Conclusions: Our philosophical scrutiny leads us to conclude that efforts to engage in meaningful and informative research on teachers and teaching would be enhanced if the epistemological threads of such research were explicit and valued components in the conceptualization, design, implementation, and interpretation of research results.
DOI
10.1177/016146811211400403
MSU Digital Commons Citation
Chambliss, Marilyn J.; Alexander, Patricia A.; and Price, Jeremy, "Epistemological Threads in the Fabric of Pedagogical Research" (2012). Department of Teaching and Learning Scholarship and Creative Works. 50.
https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/teaching-learning-facpubs/50