Educators and education researchers present a textbook for courses on education research methods. They help students understand the centrality and power of the research paradigm; describe, locate, and compare alternative approaches to education research; identify their own research interests and motivations, and to locate them within a paradigm; design research proposals and interpret findings; and read and critique research publications and papers. The book can also inform and support active education researchers.
– Protoview Reviews
Divided into seven logical sections, the 21 chapters of this book are authored by expert researchers and educators contemplating the very nature of research and its paradigms in relation to the future of education. Chapters demonstrate the process of such study links education research, design models, and new knowledge through greater understanding. Black-and-white tables compare supplementary data. Chapters conclude with references for extension of studies. [...].
What teacher practices provide the best education? Is there an assurance that students are learning? Do students have the skills they need to study? It’s through epistemology such as the comparison of three research projects that “investigated same-sex sexualities in and beyond educational domains” (p. 191) that readers can explore not only subcultural divergence and the influence of paradigm parameters, but also that research ideologies and methodologies can both provide knowledge and also destabilizing limitations where interpretation comes into play. Transnational, commissioned, and other types of research are critiqued and specific modeling and the impact of curriculum design on student learning are discussed.
Scientific inquiry has a plethora of processes which create an abyss among researchers and practitioners alike. Questions of legitimacy are presented and the final chapter states “whatever the education research topic and whatever the research approach and methods employed, being clear about the research paradigm that applies, and hence about the underpinning ontology, axiology and epistemology, helps in ensuring the research exercise is coherent and that the outcomes are appropriate and defensible” (p. 351). The range of paradigms and actual models in this book portrays intricacy and option in education research.
A research collection, Methods and Paradigms in Education Research provides details on research itself, as it relates to education. This book is a logical choice for academic developers, professors, and other professionals who prepare up-and-coming researchers in the field of education.
– Janis Minshull, ARBA Reviews