Research methods - critical educational research in curriculum study

Cao Duy Trinh<br /> <br /> Tạp chí KHOA HỌC & CÔNG NGHỆ<br /> <br /> 91(03): 53 - 57<br /> <br /> RESEARCH METHODS - CRITICAL EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH<br /> IN CURRICULUM STUDY<br /> Cao Duy Trinh*<br /> College of Sciences – TNU<br /> <br /> SUMMARY<br /> Researchers must know what they are doing in their researches: the concepts related and the<br /> methods; the natural or social nature of the inquiry; the viewpoints and attitude of the researchers<br /> towards the objects they are working on. If we want to study the curriculum, for example the<br /> exercise of power in the English course-books, then we can use research methods of Critical<br /> Educational Research. Exactly, we can use Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) methods. These<br /> methods will help reveal the inequality established in the course-books for solutions for that<br /> abolishment.<br /> This article will revise the conceptions of research and research methods with paradigms such as<br /> Positivism or Anti-positivism as the progress of history in scientific researching. It also offers the<br /> Critical Educational Research to be used for ideologies search in the curriculum. The author also<br /> suggests a link with Critical Discourse Analysis for a concrete study of English course-books.<br /> Key words: Research, research method, critical educational research, curriculum study.<br /> <br /> RESEARCH & RESEARCH METHODS*<br /> As language teachers, we know that Applied<br /> Linguistics, since its foundation in the 1950s,<br /> ashas stressed the relationship between<br /> experience of language teaching and the study<br /> of<br /> linguistics.<br /> Language<br /> teaching<br /> methodology has relied on linguistic<br /> traditions<br /> such<br /> as<br /> Chomsky’s<br /> Transformational - Generative Linguistics,<br /> Hyme’s Sociolinguistics and Halliday’s<br /> Systemic-Functional Linguistics. It has also<br /> been basing on psychological traditions such as<br /> Behaviorism, Cognitivism, Constructivism and<br /> Humanism (Canh, L.V., 2004, pp15-58) [1].<br /> Research also has its own underlying<br /> assumptions, theories, methodologies and<br /> methods. Educational research is the<br /> investigation<br /> of<br /> activities<br /> and<br /> the<br /> undertakings of a science: the systemic and<br /> scholarly application in teaching and learning<br /> in social contexts and formal education<br /> framework. It helps us in achieving a sound<br /> knowledge to develop education and relating<br /> professions and disciplines.<br /> Human always ask questions about<br /> themselves and the world around them. The<br /> ordinary<br /> questions<br /> then<br /> become<br /> *<br /> <br /> Tel: 0912 621599<br /> <br /> epistemological questions and assumptions.<br /> To answer those questions with satisfaction,<br /> they need methodologies, instrumentation and<br /> data collection. In the process of finding out<br /> answers to questions about the nature of the<br /> phenomena around them, human have ever<br /> had their experience, reasoning and research<br /> as their means. Experience or the common<br /> sense knowing is our everyday tool of the<br /> world’s discovery. Anyway, laypeople’s<br /> personal experience usually relies on<br /> undetermined happenings and is not<br /> thoroughly tested. Scientific research is done<br /> systemically and tested empirically with firm<br /> explanations and professional concern with<br /> the<br /> relationships<br /> among<br /> phenomena.<br /> Scientists have the control over the sources of<br /> influence in explaining the occurrence.<br /> Research is the further means human uses to<br /> find out about truth. It is systematic,<br /> controlled, empirical and critical study of<br /> hypotheses about the relations among the<br /> phenomena. And thus, research is different<br /> from experience. Research is the combination<br /> of experience and reasoning and become our<br /> successful tool for the world discovery.<br /> Educational research comes from different<br /> views of social sciences: established and<br /> traditional view, interpretive view, critical<br /> theory, feminist theory and complexity theory.<br /> 53<br /> <br /> Số hóa bởi Trung tâm Học liệu – Đại học Thái Nguyên<br /> <br /> http://www.lrc-tnu.edu.vn<br /> <br /> Cao Duy Trinh<br /> <br /> Tạp chí KHOA HỌC & CÔNG NGHỆ<br /> <br /> How shall we look at social reality and what<br /> are the views constructed on different ways of<br /> interpreting the reality? There can be four sets<br /> of explicit and implicit assumptions<br /> underlining the conceptions of the social<br /> world: ontology, epistemology, human nature<br /> and methodology.<br /> First, people have asked questions about the<br /> essence of social phenomena investigated as<br /> assumptions of an ontological kind.<br /> Ontological assumption concerns on the<br /> nature of the world and human being in social<br /> contexts. The nominalist believes that social<br /> reality<br /> the<br /> product<br /> of<br /> individual<br /> consciousness and reality is the result of<br /> individual cognition, therefore, created by<br /> one’s own mind. They think objects of though<br /> are nothing but merely words and there is no<br /> independently accessible thing that constitutes<br /> the meaning of a word. Meanwhile, the<br /> realist<br /> insists<br /> that<br /> objects<br /> exist<br /> independently “out there” in the world and<br /> they impose on us from outside. They exist<br /> independently from us.<br /> Secondly, the set of assumptions are of<br /> epistemological kind: knowledge and its<br /> forms, acquisition, and the communication of<br /> it to other human being. The positivist thinks<br /> that knowledge is hard, objective and<br /> tangible, requiring an observer role of the<br /> researchers and natural science methods. The<br /> anti-positivist assumes that knowledge is<br /> personal, subjective and unique, requiring the<br /> researchers’ involvement with the subjects<br /> without natural science methods.<br /> The third set of assumption is about human<br /> and their environment. Human being is not<br /> only the subject but also the object of the<br /> study – the products of the environment and<br /> also creators and producers of the<br /> environment. The three sets of above<br /> assumptions have been leading to different<br /> methods: survey, experiments, etc. for the<br /> objectivists and positivists who believe the<br /> world of natural phenomena to be hard, real<br /> and external to each individual; accounts,<br /> observation and personal constructs, etc. for<br /> the subjectivists, anti-positivists, considering<br /> the social world soft, personal and humanly<br /> created.<br /> <br /> 91(03): 53 - 57<br /> <br /> Methods, for the positivistic model in<br /> normative research, means giving responses<br /> to questions, measurement recording,<br /> phenomena describing and experiment<br /> performing. In interpretive paradigms, they<br /> means observation of the participants,<br /> interviewing, role-playing, episodes and<br /> accounts. These are techniques and<br /> procedures. Methodology is about the<br /> scientific process. It describes the approaches,<br /> kinds and paradigms of research, not the<br /> products of scientific inquiry.<br /> Positivism, since the 19th century, has<br /> regarded observation and experiment as only<br /> means of behavior understanding and<br /> scientific explanation. This is the influence of<br /> natural methodologies on social sciences. And<br /> the social scientist will observe social reality<br /> with the products formulated like the ones of<br /> natural sciences. Anyway, the complexity and<br /> intangible quality of social phenomena are<br /> quite different from the natural world. The<br /> great challenges for positivistic researchers<br /> can be seen in the context of classroom and<br /> school in teaching, learning and interaction.<br /> Positivism has been successfully used,<br /> especially for natural researches. However, in<br /> the second half of the nineteenth century, it<br /> has been criticized for its mechanistic and<br /> reductionist view of nature. It is always trying<br /> to measure the objects instead of learning<br /> things from inside and with choices,<br /> experience, individuality, morality and<br /> responsibility of human beings as living<br /> organisms. Positivism fails to consider to<br /> capacity of human subjectivity, dehumanizing<br /> effects of social science, focusing only on<br /> discovering general laws governing human<br /> behavior. Quantification, computation and<br /> statistical theories lack of exploring the<br /> circumstances of human conditions. For<br /> positivism, scientific knowledge then<br /> becomes everything to human, which ignore<br /> the creative, moral, critical, aesthetic and<br /> hermeneutic sides of knowledge. Behavior<br /> means only techniques. Positivism has also<br /> been accused of being banal and trivial as it<br /> show little connection to whom it is intended<br /> for and their environment.<br /> <br /> 54<br /> <br /> Số hóa bởi Trung tâm Học liệu – Đại học Thái Nguyên<br /> <br /> http://www.lrc-tnu.edu.vn<br /> <br /> Cao Duy Trinh<br /> <br /> Tạp chí KHOA HỌC & CÔNG NGHỆ<br /> <br /> Replacing positivism, there appears antipositivism movement – the naturalistic<br /> approaches. The anti-positivists agree that the<br /> world can be understood from the views of<br /> the individuals with their autonomous models.<br /> Social science, for them, should be seen from<br /> inside subjectively with different participants’<br /> direct experience in certain contexts.<br /> Developments<br /> in<br /> psychology,<br /> social<br /> psychology and sociology have made the<br /> understanding and treating of human beings<br /> as persons more satisfactory. Working as<br /> alternative<br /> to<br /> positivist<br /> approaches,<br /> naturalistic,<br /> qualitative,<br /> interpretative<br /> approaches have some distinguishing<br /> features: people are active and creative in<br /> their meaningful activities; they construct<br /> their social world deliberately; situations<br /> change, events and behaviors evolve;<br /> individuals and happenings are unique and<br /> not generalizable; social world is studied<br /> naturally, with no intervention of the<br /> researcher; fidelity is important; events must<br /> be interpreted in real contexts and situations;<br /> one event or situation, many interpretations<br /> and perspectives; reality is complex with<br /> many layers; thick descriptions are better than<br /> simplistic ones; situations should be studied<br /> from the view of participants, not researchers.<br /> Anyway, research methods are not merely<br /> technical<br /> exercises.<br /> They<br /> are<br /> our<br /> understanding of the world: our viewpoint,<br /> consideration, and aims of understanding it.<br /> More ever, educational research, politics and<br /> decision-making are always going together in<br /> researching for the truth. The funding of local<br /> authorities and government will favor the<br /> policy-related research which guides the<br /> policy decisions, improves their quality and<br /> implements them. Who will be sponsored,<br /> who will control and release the data and<br /> findings, whose research will be chosen for<br /> educational service are, therefore, the<br /> problems. Research involves indirectly in the<br /> decision-making process with concepts,<br /> propositions,<br /> explanations,<br /> strategies,<br /> methodologies, theories and evidence to make<br /> inputs, guidance, gloss, orientation, insights<br /> <br /> 91(03): 53 - 57<br /> <br /> and generalization. The relationship of<br /> education research, politics and policymaking is very dialectic and complex.<br /> Researchers can influence the policy-makers<br /> by the links with power groups. Only<br /> politically acceptable research will survive.<br /> That means the research will be used when it<br /> agrees with the political agenda of the<br /> governments and the policy-makers. In fact,<br /> research is also part of political process in<br /> which who does the research, what<br /> knowledge is worthwhile and how the results<br /> will be used will matter.<br /> CRITICAL EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH<br /> AND CURRICULUM STUDY<br /> Critical educational research is an emerging<br /> approach while positivist and interpretative<br /> paradigms are incomplete accounts of social<br /> behavior as they ignore the political and<br /> ideological contexts in the educational<br /> researches. Positivist and interpretative<br /> paradigms are too much interested in<br /> technical and hermeneutic knowledge.<br /> Critical theory does not only describe or<br /> understand the society and behavior. It calls<br /> for a society of equality and democracy<br /> through social changes. Cohen writes about<br /> the origin and the aims of the theory:<br /> “The paradigm of critical educational<br /> research is heavily influenced by the early<br /> work of Habermas and, to a lesser extent, his<br /> predecessors in the Frankfurt School, most<br /> notably Adorno, Marcuse, Horkheimer and<br /> Fromm. Here the expressed intention is<br /> deliberately political – the emancipation of<br /> individuals and groups in an egalitarian<br /> society…In particular it seeks to emancipate<br /> the disempowered, to redress inequality and<br /> to promote individual freedoms within a<br /> democratic society.<br /> Cohen et al. (2007:26) ) [2]<br /> Critical theory points out the problems in the<br /> common sense and legitimacy of power and<br /> powerlessness, suppression and suppressed,<br /> inclusion and exclusion, voicing, ideology,<br /> participation, interest and representation. For<br /> this theory, even the researches will not be for<br /> 55<br /> <br /> Số hóa bởi Trung tâm Học liệu – Đại học Thái Nguyên<br /> <br /> http://www.lrc-tnu.edu.vn<br /> <br /> Cao Duy Trinh<br /> <br /> Tạp chí KHOA HỌC & CÔNG NGHỆ<br /> <br /> the interest of all people. The theory will help<br /> the researcher uncover the interest in certain<br /> situations before he/she can do something to<br /> change the society and other individuals for a<br /> real democracy. The research of critical<br /> education is practical as it aims at abolishing<br /> a society of inequality and illegitimacy.<br /> Marxism can be the departure of such ideas.<br /> In their studies, researchers must claim their<br /> standpoint and there is no place for neutrality<br /> or ideological and political innocence. Critical<br /> theory and critical educational research, as<br /> Cohen et al. (2007:27) ) [2] say:<br /> …have their substantive agenda – for<br /> example examining and interrogating: the<br /> relationship between school and society –<br /> how school perpetuate or reduce inequality;<br /> the social construction of knowledge and<br /> curricula, who define worthwhile knowledge,<br /> what ideological interests this serves, and<br /> how this reproduces inequality in society;<br /> how power is produced and reproduced<br /> through education; whose interests are served<br /> by education and how legitimate these are<br /> (e.g. the rich, white, middle class males rather<br /> than poor, non-white females).<br /> The impact of critical theory on curriculum<br /> research is far-reaching. The rationale for<br /> curriculum is expressed in Tyler’s questions:<br /> What educational purposes should the school<br /> seek to attain?<br /> What educational experiences can be<br /> provided that are likely to attain these<br /> purposes?<br /> How can these educational experiences be<br /> effectively organized?<br /> How can we determine whether these<br /> purposes are being attained?<br /> Cohen et al. (2007:30) [2]<br /> The above positivist view comes from the<br /> ideas that the curriculum is controllable,<br /> predetermined, ordered, predictable, uniform<br /> and behaviorist. This assumption does not<br /> take ideology and power into consideration. It<br /> is kind of positivist political neutrality and<br /> objectivity, ignoring psychology and psychopedagogy offered in constructivism. It is a<br /> closed system, different from the view seeing<br /> postmodern<br /> society<br /> open,<br /> diverse,<br /> <br /> 91(03): 53 - 57<br /> <br /> multidimensional and fluid. In fact, power is<br /> less monolithic and more problematical. The<br /> contemporary curricula are rather the<br /> products of chaos and complexity. Curricula<br /> are rich, relational, recursive and rigorous<br /> with an emphasis on emergence, process<br /> epistemology and constructivist psychology.<br /> The knowledge selected in the society and<br /> curricula expresses ideologies and power. The<br /> choice of knowledge is neither political<br /> neutral nor innocent. Ideologies, as beliefs,<br /> come from powerful groups in the society and<br /> knowledge selection for the curricula will<br /> secure their interests. This is why curricula<br /> are value-laden or value-based and never<br /> value-free. Values and power are strongly<br /> connected: not only what knowledge is but<br /> also whose knowledge is, for whom the<br /> knowledge is and, finally, whose interests the<br /> curricula will serve (or not serve) will count.<br /> The curriculum is really ideologically<br /> constructed.<br /> For critical research, knowledge is not purely<br /> intelligence. It belongs to different interests.<br /> Technical interests will guarantee the power<br /> of their owners because interest, in general,<br /> has ideological function. Interests and<br /> knowledge go together in the possession,<br /> control, interpretation etc. of that knowledge.<br /> Cohen et al. (2007: 32) ) [2] mentions the<br /> Habermas’s naming of technical, practical<br /> and emancipatory interests. Technical interest<br /> deals with scientific and positivist method,<br /> focusing on laws, rules and the prediction and<br /> control of behaviors. Practical interest try to<br /> interpret the subjects with hermeneutic,<br /> interpretative methodologies of qualitative<br /> approaches from the eyes of the participants<br /> in the interaction with other people.<br /> Emancipatory interest points out the exercise<br /> of power and the necessary change for a<br /> better society. The idea that ideology of the<br /> authorities, the dominant groups with their<br /> values<br /> and<br /> practices<br /> outgo<br /> other<br /> disempowered social groups is not new. One<br /> of the ideology critical approaches is Critical<br /> Discourse Analysis (CDA) [3,4,5]. This<br /> method can be used for the study of language,<br /> culture and ideologies expressed in different<br /> curricula (English text-books, for example),<br /> as a special kind of discourse.<br /> <br /> 56<br /> <br /> Số hóa bởi Trung tâm Học liệu – Đại học Thái Nguyên<br /> <br /> http://www.lrc-tnu.edu.vn<br /> <br /> Cao Duy Trinh<br /> <br /> Tạp chí KHOA HỌC & CÔNG NGHỆ<br /> <br /> REFERENCES<br /> [1]. Canh, L.V. (2004), Understanding Foreign<br /> Language Teaching Methodology, Hanoi National<br /> University.<br /> [2]. Cohen L., Manion L., rrison K. (2007),<br /> Research Method in Education, Routledge,<br /> London and New York.<br /> [3]. Fairclough N. L. (2001), Language and<br /> Power, Longman, London.<br /> <br /> 91(03): 53 - 57<br /> <br /> [4]. Nguyễn Hòa (2000), An Introduction to<br /> Discourse Analysis, National University College<br /> of Foreign Languages, Hanoi.<br /> [5]. Cao Duy Trinh (2006), Exploration<br /> ideological power relations in a global document:<br /> The Berne convention for the protection of<br /> literature and artistic works, Luận văn thạc sĩ tại<br /> Đại học Ngoại Ngữ, Đại học Quốc gia Hà nội.<br /> <br /> TÓM TẮT<br /> CÁC PHƯƠNG PHÁP NGHIÊN CỨU – NGHIÊN CỨU GIÁO DỤC PHÊ PHÁN<br /> VỀ CHƯƠNG TRÌNH GIẢNG DẠY<br /> Cao Duy Trinh*<br /> Trường Đại học Khoa học – ĐH Thái Nguyên<br /> <br /> Các nhà nghiên cứu cần biết về các khái niệm liên quan và các phương pháp nghiên cứu; bản chất<br /> tự nhiên và xã hội của việc điều tra; quan điểm và thái độ của mình đối với các đối tượng nghiên<br /> cứu. Nếu ta muốn tìm hiểu về chương trình giảng dạy, chẳng hạn như việc thực hiện quyền lực<br /> trong các cuốn giáo trình tiếng Anh, chúng ta có thể sử dụng các phương pháp của mô hình<br /> Nghiên cứu Giáo dục Phê phán. Cụ thể, có thể sử dụng các Phương pháp Phân tích Diễn ngôn Phê<br /> phán. Các phương pháp này sẽ giúp vạch ra những bất bình đẳng tạo ra trong các sách giáo trình<br /> để tìm giải pháp xóa bỏ bất bình đẳng đó.<br /> Bài báo này xem xét các khái niệm như Nghiên cứu, Phương pháp nghiên cứu với các mô hình<br /> như Chủ nghĩa Thực chứng hay Chủ nghĩa Bất thực chứng theo tiến trình lịch sử của việc nghiên<br /> cứu khoa học. Bài báo cũng đề cập việc sử dụng mô hình Nghiên cứu Giáo dục Phê phán vào việc<br /> tìm kiếm tính Tư tưởng trong chương trình giảng dạy. Ở đây, tác giả cũng gợi ý kết nối với Phân<br /> tich Diễn ngôn Phê phán trong công trình nghiên cứu cụ thể về sách giáo khoa Tiếng Anh.<br /> Từ khóa: Nghiên cứu, phương pháp nghiên cứu, nghiên cứu giáo dục phê phán, chương trình<br /> giảng dạy<br /> <br /> *<br /> <br /> Tel: 0912 621599<br /> <br /> 57<br /> <br /> Số hóa bởi Trung tâm Học liệu – Đại học Thái Nguyên<br /> <br /> http://www.lrc-tnu.edu.vn<br /> <br />