SAGE Journal Articles
Select SAGE journal articles are available to give you more insight into chapter topics. These are also an ideal resource to help support your literature reviews, dissertations and assignments.
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Abstract: Although positivism means different things to different people, it is not difficult to identify research paradigms that would be clearly identified as positivist by friends and foes of positivism alike. I briefly describe one such paradigm and identify its principal features. I argue that even outspoken critics of positivist research–such as Elliot Eisner, Frederick Erickson, Henry Giroux, and Thomas Popkewitz–are logically committed to propositions that can be tested only by means of positivist research paradigms.
Abstract: This article explores some of the main features of the controversies about knowledge by turning first to certain assumptions that guided social theory at least since the 19th century. My interest here, however, is not only in the disciplinary struggles, but also in the changing social conditions that make these debates possible. I look at the systems of reasoning in educational studies as social practices—what I have previously called “a social epistemology.” When we examine current discussions against 19th century assumptions about social theory, we are able to understand that the stakes of educational research are social and political as well as epistemological.
Abstract: In this paper, we explore issues of epistemology and ontology as they relate to research in experiential education. As research activity in this field grows, it is essential to consider the assumptions and foundations upon which research is based. Drawing on the work of Guba and Lincoln (1994), we seek to provide a language for considering such issues and comparing research approaches. We then argue that traditional approaches to research in experiential education are not, in themselves, adequate. These traditional approaches tend to focus on whether programs “work.” Ironically, such a focus tends to ignore a key feature of our work: the experiences of individuals and the meanings they make of their experiences.
Abstract: In this article the authors challenge contemporary epistemological research within educational settings. After a reconciliation of the current models which treat epistemological beliefs as static and mechanical, the authors present a teaching experience to illustrate their enactivist view that epistemological beliefs should be conceptualized as fluid and dynamic constructs, emerging in web-like configurations. Answers to epistemological questions unfold within the interstices and mutual interactions between people and their environment.
Abstract: In higher education, personal epistemology is today a significant research area. Personal epistemology has been seen as promising particularly because it focuses on one of the general learning aims of many contemporary universities, namely, the development of students’ creative and critical thinking. The article identifies serious conceptual problems in the theoretical framework of personal epistemology.