Beijing Normal University
Foundation of Educational Research:
Methodology, Epistemology and Ontology
Lecture 1
In Search of the Foundations of Educational research:
From Methodological and Epistemological Foundations
to Ontological Foundation
A. From Research Methods to Methodology: Mapping the Pathway of Social and
Educational Research
1. What is research?
a. “A studious inquiry or examination; esp: critical and exhaustive investigation or
experimentation having for its aim the discovery of new facts and their correct
interpretation, the revision of accepted conclusions, theories, or laws in the light
of newly discovered facts, or applications of such new or revised conclusions,
theories, or laws.” (Webster Dictionary)
b. Research is act of “the acquisition of reliable knowledge concerning many
aspects of the world…and self-conscious use of …method.” (Negal, 1961, p.1)
Knower
(The Self)
Self-conscious use of Method
Known
(The world)
Reliable Knowledge
2. What is methodology?
Paul F. Lazarsfeld, one the founding father of the quantitative social research in the
US, has defined, “Methodology was an analytical approach which examined
concrete studies to make explicit the procedures that were used, the underlying
assumptions that were made, and the modes of explanation that we offered. It thus
involved a codification of ongoing research procedures. Actual research was the
material from which methodology is built, without being identical with it.”
(Lazarsfeld, 1972, p. xi)
3. Three samples of synthesis in methodology in social sciences
a. Charles C. Ragin (1994/2011) Constructing of Social Research
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b. Robert R. Alford (1996) The Craft of Inquiry: Theories, Methods &Evidence.
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c. Jurgen Habermas (1971/1968) Knowledge and Human Interest:
“There are three categories of processes of inquiry for which a specific
connection between logical-methodological rules and knowledge-constitutive
interests can be demonstrated. …The approach for empirical-analytical
sciences incorporates a technical cognitive interest; that of the
historical-hermeneutic sciences incorporates a practical one; and the approach
of critically oriented sciences incorporates the emancipatory cognitive interest.”
(P. 308)
B. From Methodology to Epistemology
1. What is epistemology?
Epistemology was originated from Greek episteme and logo meaning knowledge
and study respectively. Hence, it refers to the studies of knowledge. More
specifically it refers to the intellectual efforts to enquiry the nature and foundation of
knowledge:
a. Knowledge, according to Plato’s well-known definition (Plato, 1992) is a
justified true belief. Accordingly, there are three constituents of knowledge.
First, it is a human belief, for example belief about in the world, i.e. in the form
of a proposition. Second, the belief or more specifically the proposition is a
truth. Finally, the true belief has been well justified.
Based on this definition of knowledge, the studies of knowledge and the
theories of knowledge are obliged to enquire into the following questions.
b. What is the belief about? The question basically deals with the object of
knowledge. They may include: believes about something in the world, i.e.
propositional knowledge or knowledge what; believes about to do to achieve
something in the world, practical knowledge or knowledge how. Furthermore,
according to Habermas’ categorization, they may be believes about the natural
world, i.e. knowledge in natural sciences; believes about the social world, i.e.
knowledge in social sciences; or believes about the subjective world, i.e.
knowledge in psychology, virtue studies, etc.
c. What is truth? The question basically concerns about the criteria used in
assessing the validity of the belief in point. Throughout the years various
perspectives have emerged and as result it has turn the studies substantiated
in studies of truth into battle field of schools of thought.
d. What constitute a well justification? The question basically relates to the
methods used in rendering solid supports to the true belief in point. Once again,
since the advent of the modern era, various paradigms of methodology have
also turn the field into a war zone.
f. More recent, Jurgen Habermas has formulated another paradigmatic question
for the field of epistemology, namely to enquire the human interest constitutive
to different system of knowledge. (Habermas, 1971) Habermas has introduced
the concept of knowledge-constitutive interests in his book Knowledge and
Human Interests. (1971) He states that “I term interests the basic orientations
rooted in specific fundamental conditions of the possible reproduction and
self-constitution of the human species, namely work and interaction. …
Knowledge-constitutive interests can be defined exclusively as a function of
the objectively constituted problems of existence as such. Work and interaction
by nature include processes of learning and arriving at mutual understanding.”
(1971, P. 196) Accordingly, this aspect of epistemological analysis will trace the
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primary human interests that a system of knowledge is supposed to pursuit.
2. The impasses derived from the paradigm wars of in the field of methodology and
epistemology for the past three centuries
a. Methodological impasses in social and educational research
i. Methodological monism vs. methodological pluralism
i. Methodological collectivism vs. methodological individualism
ii. Quantitative vs. qualitative methods
b. Epistemological impasses in social and educational research
i. Objective factual propositions vs. Subjective meaning-laden representations
ii. Analytical structuralism vs. interpretive holism
iii. Nomological causations vs. historical-contextual configurations
iv. Objective truth vs. practical truth
3. The state of the art in the field of social- and educational-research methods:
Fractions of perspectives have practically torn the field of educational and social
researches apart. Researchers practicing in different paradigms are basically
incommensurable to each other. Their incommensurable differences are generally
derived from that they:
a. Approach the world with different conception of the reality
b. Formulate different believes, propositions, and hypotheses about the world
c. Assess their believes and propositions against different ideas and principles of
truth
d. Justify their believes and propositions, which they presume to be true by
means of difference methods
e. aim to serve different human interest with their research results
Confronted by all these diversities among methodological and epistemological
perspectives, students of social and educational research are experiencing a kind
of lost and badly in need of guidance.
C. Bring the Ontology Back into Social and Educational Research
1. In recent decade, scholars have attempted to approach this incommensurability
among social and educational researchers with new perspectives. One of them is
known as realism or more specifically critical realism.
a. “Since Descartes (1596-1650), it has been customary first to ask how we can
know, and only afterwards what it is that we can know. But this Cartesian
ordering has been a contributory factor to prevalence of epistemic fallacy: it is
easy to let the question how we can know determine our conception of what
there is. And if in a certain respect the epistemic question does seem prior, in
another it is secondary to the ontological one.” (Collier, 1993, P. 137)
b. “I shall concentrate first on the ontological question of the properties that
societies possess, before shift to the epistemological question of these
properties make them possible objects of knowledge for use. This is not an
arbitrary order of development. It reflects the condition that …it is the nature of
objects that determines their cognitive possibilities for us.” (Bhaskar, 1989)
2. This approach has practical reversed the priorities in social and educational
research that has been dominated the discourse of social and educational
research. Instead of starting from considering which research methods to employ
(i.e. methodological priority) or which epistemological perspective to adopt
(epistemological priority), one can first consider the nature and features of the
object of the research (i.e. ontological priority).
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3. Ontological impasses in social and educational research: However, it must be
underlined at the outset that there are still some impasses in the perspectives of
ontological enquiry. For examples
a. Naturalism vs. constructivism
b. Empiricism vs. idealism
D. Historical Development of the Discourse about Social Research: A brief Review
1. Descarte’s Mediations (1596-1650) and skepticism
2. Scientific Revolution in 17th century
2. Enlightenment in 18-19th century and Kant’s Critiques
3. The French Positivism: From Auguste Comte (1798-1857) to Emile Durkheim
(1858-1917)
4. The Disputes in Method (Methodenstreit) and value judgment (Werturteilsstreit) in
Germany and the stance of Max Weber (1964-1920)
4. Dispute between the Vienna Circle and the Frankfurt School in early twentieth
century
5. Carl G. Hempel’s assault on the inadequacy of historical scientific researches and
their methodical approach in 1942s
6. The rebuttals against Hempel’s assault from scholars of the hermeneutic traditions
and the initiation of the cultural and/or linguist turn in social science
7. Jurgen Habermas’ proposed three theories of knowledge and human interests
(1965)
Additional References
Plato (1992). Theaetetus. Edited, with introduction, by Bernard Williams ; translated by
M.J. Levett ; revised by Myles Burnyeat. Indianapolis : Hackett Publication.
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