Proteus Rising: Re-Imagining Educational Research

Abstract

The idea that educational research should be ‘scientific’, and ideally based on randomised control trials, is in danger of becoming hegemonic. In the face of this it seems important to ask what other kinds of educational research can be respectable in their own different terms. We might also note that the demand for research to be ‘scientific’ is characteristically modernist, and thus arguably local and temporary. It is then tempting to consider what non‐modernist approaches might look like. The purpose of this article is to sketch a case for one particular reaction against modernist thinking: romanticism. How might our understanding (apprehension, sense) of education be changed by readmitting the insights and perspectives of romanticism? And, crucially, what confidence could we have in educational research that was thus inspired and that took the ‘romantic turn’?

Learning to learn in the European Reference Framework for lifelong learning

“…Moreover, the participation of the learner in the formation of purposes may admit of forms of knowing (and of learning) that are far broader than those implied by the word epistemology and the traditional distinction between 'knowing how' and 'knowing that' (or indeed 'learning how' or 'learning that'). As Smith (2008) points out, 'instead of knowing the world we might be attuned to it, sensitive to it ... [we] might resonate with it, share its rhythms--the way we might be at one with the natural world if we opened ourselves to it instead of approaching it as scientists ' (p. 4, emphasis in original).…”

Icarus Falling: Re-Imagining Educational Theory

“…This article emerges from work that addressed the role of the literary imagination in educational research (Pirrie, ); and the themes of educational studies, interdisciplinarity and community (Pirrie and Gillies, ). It also draws on work that has considered the negative consequences for educational research of a narrow emphasis on epistemology (Smith, ). The term epistemology suggests ‘a traditional examination in terms of, for instance, justified true beliefs or the distinction between knowing how and knowing that’ (Smith, , p. 184).…”

“…It also draws on work that has considered the negative consequences for educational research of a narrow emphasis on epistemology (Smith, ). The term epistemology suggests ‘a traditional examination in terms of, for instance, justified true beliefs or the distinction between knowing how and knowing that’ (Smith, , p. 184). As Smith points out, an epistemological approach ‘is only one of many relevant ways of relating to the world and of imagining the connection between us and it’ (2008, p. 184).…”

“…The term ‘data’ gestures towards the holy grail of social sciences in the modern era. It implies a form of empiricism, ‘as if research essentially discovers facts and correlations’ (Smith, , p. 184). However, what Kołakowski has in mind is something that remains tantalisingly out of reach, something that would never figure amongst research ‘findings’.…”

“…Smith (, p. 190) invokes the figure of Proteus, ‘a sea god who can alter his shape’, and who ‘will tell the future to anyone … who has the power to hold on to him through all his shifts and transformations’. At this point it seems prudent to avoid accusations of flying like Perseus into a different space.…”