Through the looking glass: methodological features of research of alternative schools

Abstract

On the basis of the analysis of the general characteristics of alternative schools and the methodology of pedagogical research, the comparison and synthesis of the obtained facts were formed. It is pointed out that in the field of pedagogy, the adoption of (positivist) methodology has become a global trend. It emphasizes the uncritical application of research tools from the corpus of quantitative methodology in research of specific educational problems, as well as in research of alternative schools in which the context of the research is significantly different than the one of the conventional public schools.

Application of Didactic Games in Mathematics Teaching

“…The methodology of education research has a number of different research tools, approaches and methods of data collection and analysis, but in this research a quantitative approach was predominantly used with regard to the epistemology and ontology of the research (Cohen, Manion and Morrison, 2007;Creswell, 2012;Dubovicki and Topolovčan, 2020;Matijević and Topolovčan, 2017). Since the questionnaire also asked open-ended questions, we can talk about the approach of mixed methodology, because in addition to quantitative, it also contains qualitative data.…”

Methodological Particularities in Research on Contemporary Childhood in Croatia: A Pedagogical – Psychological Perspective

“…A detailed analysis was conducted with the help of a futures technique, Trend Analysis, which has rarely been used in previous research on this topic (Bigham and Riney, 2014;Dubovicki and Munjiza, 2021;Dubovicki and Topolovčan, 2020a;Topolovčan and Dubovicki, 2019).…”

“…One of the most valuable determinants of every modern researcher is his willingness to use modern approaches while conducting research. The abundance of research techniques, qualitative and quantitative data analysis and the ready availability of global methodological research enable modern researchers to create a holistic approach to research that will not only identify challenges and potential problems but also successfully address the difficulties which caused them (Dubovicki, 2019b;Dubovicki and Topolovčan, 2020a). While conducting research in the field of education involving participants aged 6 to 14, we often put an emphasis on respecting ethical principles, obtaining consent for research, ensuring anonymity and other technical details of the study, and we end by neglecting the research methodology (and everything it entails).…”

“…While reviewing previous research dealing with this issue, we discovered that only a few papers include thematic/content analyses, which are vital for monitoring and predicting future trends (Dubovicki and Munjiza, 2021). That is why more recent pedagogical research has used a futures technique, Trend Analysis, which provides insight into past and present trends in a clear, systematic way, taking into account the methodological particularities of the historical approach and analysis of documentation, while also predicting potential future trends (Eğmir, Erdem and Koçyiğit, 2017;Dubovicki, Mlinarević and Velki, 2018;Dubovicki and Munjiza, 2019;Dubovicki and Topolovčan, 2020a;2020b;Topolovčan and Dubovicki, 2019). In addition to the contemporary methodological approach, one of the main goals of the paper is to open a methodological discussion on the pedagogical and psychological features, possibilities, advantages, and limitations of contemporary childhood research, but also to emphasize the importance of researching contemporary childhood with futurology research methods.…”

Waldorf school. Ex post facto case study

“…The first primary Waldorf school in Croatia was founded in 1993 (Matijević, 2021). Waldorf school is one of the famous and intriguing alternative free schools of today (Dubovicki & Topolovčan, 2020;Paschen, 2014;Rawson, 2019;Richter, 2019;Schieren, 2016).…”