Coming of age in cyberspace

A critical-realist response to the postmodern agenda in instructional design and technology: a way forward

“…As a way to refresh the dialogue, then, what we offer below in the form of a rebuttal is a more innovative mind-set, one that learns from past mistakes while providing a way forward. My contention is that protocols derived from a critical-realist perspective may allow us to address more adequately the tensions of domination and emancipation so often cited by postmodernists De Vaney 1998;Yeaman 2000;. The point here is not that the postmodernist agenda has abandoned rigorous empirical methods, e.g., ethnography, action research, and narrative inquiry are all rigorous, trustworthy methodologies (though we will argue that advocates of these approaches rarely fully employ these methods).…”