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International Studies in Phenomenology and Philosophy

Book | Chapter

179623

Educational research and the light of science

Richard Smith

pp. 155-158

Abstract

The demand for educational research to be "scientific' is as misguided as the requirement for social scientists to resemble physical scientists in their methods and has the same roots. Social scientists are so called mainly because, following the Era of Scientific Revolutions around the beginning of the seventeenth century and the Enlightenment, the idea took root that "science' was the most powerful and respectable kind of knowledge. The same historical movements have led to "science' and its derivatives having high standing as terms of rhetoric. Texts describing educational research in scientific terms are often no more than rhetorical, and here I analyse an exemplary document from the European Science Foundation in order to reveal its rhetorical status and the distortions this effects in our understanding of education and educational research.

Publication details

Published in:

D. Reid Alan, Paul Hart E., Peters Michael A. (2014) A companion to research in education. Dordrecht, Springer.

Pages: 155-158

DOI: 10.1007/978-94-007-6809-3_19

Full citation:

Smith Richard (2014) „Educational research and the light of science“, In: A. D. reid, E. Paul hart & M. A. Peters (eds.), A companion to research in education, Dordrecht, Springer, 155–158.