This is an excellent article that speaks to me specifically as someone based in the humanities who does work in the field of education. It argues that replication - using new data to solve the same problem - cannot be applied to the humanities because there is not an independent reality against which the studies can be compared. Rather, "The central ontological assumption at the heart of most research in the humanities is that reality is socially mediated through language." That does not mean that 'anything goes' in humanities research (though it does argue against a formal research methodology). Evaluation of argumentation in the humanities employs "all manner of critical tools employed to strip the flesh from ideas and expose weaknesses in interpretations." Now in my own work I take the concept a bit further: I don't think knowledge need be 'socially mediated', and I think there are many other media over and above language. What then can I usefully say about education? Well, quite a lot, I think. Not replications of perceptions as expressed through Likert scales, nor assessments of 'what works' in education, but rather, ways of looking at the means, motivations and assumptions that lie in the implementations - or rejections - of educational technology. Image: UQueensland.
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