Pesquisa em educação: buscando rigor e qualidade

Abstract

RESUMOO texto aborda questões relativas à busca de rigor na pesquisa em educação. Mostra que as mudanças nos referenciais, nos contextos e nas metodologias dos estudos, nos últimos anos, suscitaram questionamentos sobre a natureza dos conhecimentos produzidos, sobre os critérios de julgamento dos trabalhos científicos e sobre os pressupostos dos métodos e técni-cas. Além disso, analisa as condições reais que os pesquisadores enfrentam na produção de conhecimento científico e conclui pela necessidade de lutar pela melhoria dessas condições. MÉTODOS DE PESQUISA PESQUISADOR EDUCAÇÃO ABSTRACT EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH: SEEKING RIGOR AND QUALITY. The paper discusses some questions related to the attempts to safeguard quality of educational research. It shows that it have been many changes in research concepts, contexts and methodologies in the last years followed by issues on the nature of scientific knowledge, on the criteria to evaluate scientific work and on new methodologies assumptions. Further, it analyses real situations of knowledge production and points out that it is mandatory to improve them.Texto baseado na Conferência apresentada no III Seminário de Pesquisa em Educação Região Sul, da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul UFRGS Porto Alegre, dez. 2000.

Quality in the process of scientific production in accounting in Brazil

“…A good example to illustrate how the absence of rigor may compromise the quality of a study is presented by André (2001), who focuses on the education field; her work is based on previous studies in which she cites the lack of knowledge about assumptions and research methods and techniques. She notes problems in that field's research process, such as methodological weaknesses of studies and surveys resulting from their use of very reduced portions of reality.…”

“…Third, what procedures must be followed to maintain rigor in the collection and analysis of data? These questions relate to the assumptions of research methods and techniques, both in situations focusing on local issues and in situations addressing a large number of observations (André, 2001). In discussing research quality, the second and third questions are particularly important because they explore two concepts analyzed in that paper: rigor and quality of the knowledge produced.…”

“…Research in education, for instance, has received some criticism involving the space between theory and practice (i.e., actors and researchers' roles, which are difficult to reconcile in science or intervention policy) and rigor helps address these issues (André, 2001). For André, 2 there are many relevant questions that have not yet been formulated and other issues that must be discovered and/or resolved; therefore, there are many opportunities for all types of research.…”

“…This model was based on classic scientific criteria such as validity, reliability and generalization (André, 2001), but social investigators believed that traditional standards could not address new research approaches, particularly because qualitative studies sought to understand human and social phenomena. Discussing quality and credibility focused on qualitative research, Patton There is no consensus related to which criteria are best for judging research quality.…”

“…Considering the final view, which is notably related to a study of practice, this work uses a combination of different sources to show a set of general criteria that was judged as possible to use, after taking the appraisal questions that drive the judgment of scientific evidence into account. André (2001) argues that some broader criteria and other criteria more specific to each study group might be defined. However, building these standards should be a collective and long-term task.…”