Philosophy in Educational Research: Epistemology, Ethics, Politics and Quality

David Bridges

Dec 2016 · Springer

Ebook

479

Pages

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About this ebook

This book provides critical and reflective discussions of a wide range of issues arising in education at the interface between philosophy, research, policy and practice. It addresses epistemological questions about the intellectual resources that underpin educational research, explores the relationship between philosophy and educational research, and examines debates about truth and truthfulness in educational research. Furthermore, it looks at issues to do with the relationship between research, practice and policy, and discusses questions about ethics and educational research. Finally, the book delves into the deeply contested area of research quality assessment. The book is based on extensive engagement in empirically based educational research projects and in the institutional and professional management of research, as well as in philosophical work. It clarifies what is at stake in international debates around educational research and teases out the nature of the arguments, and, where argument permits, the conclusions to which these point.

The book discusses these familiar themes using less predictable sources and points of reference, such as: codes of social obligation in contemporary Egypt and New Zealand; the ‘Soviet’, and the inspiration of the nineteenth-century philosopher, Abai in contemporary Kazakhstan; seventeenth-century France, Pascal, and the disputes between Jesuits and Jansenites; eighteenth-century Italy, Giambattista Vico, and la scienzia nuova; ‘educational magic’ in traditional Ethiopia; and ends at a banquet with Socrates and dinner with wine and a conversation-loving Montaigne.

About the author

David Bridges has been a leading contributor to philosophy of education for several decades. He served as Chair of the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain and was subsequently elected as an Honorary Vice President. In his efforts to build bridges to the mainstream educational research communities he co-founded and for several years convened the philosophy of education network of the European Education Research Association and the philosophy of education Special Interest Group of the British Education Research Association. He has published extensively in philosophical journals including the Journal of Philosophy of Education, Educational Theory, and Ethics and Education.

In parallel with this philosophical work he has developed a substantial programme of empirical and multidisciplinary research, has directed or codirected some 28 research and/or evaluation projects over the last thirty years, including several international collaborations and was most recently Director of Research (Kazakhstan and Mongolia) in the University of Cambridge Faculty of Education. He sat for six years as a Council member of both the British and the European Education Research Associations, was elected as a Fellow of the UK Academy of Social Sciences and an overseas Fellow of the="" lithuanian="" academy="" of="" science,="" and="" was="" awarded="" an="" honorary="" d.univ.="" open="" university.="" he ="" served="" on="" the="" education="" panel="" for ="" uk ="" research="" assessment="" exercise="" in="" 2001="" again="" 2008.="" he="" is="" emeritus="" professor="" university="" east="" anglia,="" where="" pro="" vice="" chancellor,="" fellow="" both="" st="" edmund’s="" college="" cambridge,="" (where="" directed="" multidisciplinary="" von="" hügel="" institute),="" homerton="" cambridge.

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