Paradigm and Ideology in Educational Research

The purpose of this book is to explore the social location and contradictions of social science. It is to probe how social assumptions, cultural location and political interests become intricately tied to conceptual, procedural and design questions. These issues are given focus through case studies in American and the former Soviet pedagogical research and evaluation, particularly the Russian Vygotski traditions. These research communities provide a specific historical context to consider the larger sociological issues of social science and the social role of the intellectual. Because of the general and specific focus, the book has different publics. It is directed to professionals, academics and students interested in critical analyses of social institutions. The researcher is considered a social type who is located in the general dynamics and represents interests of society. This book is also designed as an introductory text for courses in research methods. The focus on paradigms enables a consideration of the interrelation of questions, concepts and data gathering procedures. While written before the current policy focus on science on randomized studies and "˜scientific evidence", the discussion provides a corrective to limitations of such thinking about research. It illustrates research as a complex process in which particular data collecting techniques assume meaning and significance only in relation to the assumptions of the larger intellectual traditions in which the techniques are applied. In this respect, research methodology is considered as a subject matter of this book. Its themes and organization are a response to university research and graduate programs which focus only upon the "˜how-to-do-it tasks of data collection and analysis. Research is thought of as a series of techniques in statistics, testing or observation that are practiced independently of questions, assumptions or concepts. Labels such as qualitative or quantitative research, for exampl