Doing research in Education

This writing presents some basic theoretical definitions about research and why research is important in education.

I will start by using Usher’s question: ‘What are we doing when we do research?’ (Usher, 1996: 10) According to the author, it is basically addressing and investigating. However, he argues, it is not a simple problem-solving or finding-out which can occur in everyday practice. To do proper research as a scientific discipline, it must be ‘systematic, rigorous and methodical’. Additionally, Hitchcock and Hughes say research refers to the process of obtaining and analyzing information and data (1989: 5).

Another relevant question is: what is the purpose of doing research? The simplest answer is, to get knowledge about something. However, the concept of ‘knowledge’ is a thorny topic which has been the central theme of philosophical discussion.
During the 17th century two important philosophical European movements; rationalist and empiricist, addressed the topic. While rationalists firmly believed in the power of the mind for gaining knowledge, empiricists concluded that just experience and perception by sense allowed people to acquire knowledge. For empiricists, the experience’s repetition of certain situations offers to people major criteria which help them to know something. For them, every truth or knowledge can be questioned and eventually modified, improved or even neglected by the experience. Hence, there is no eternal truth; it is constantly changing according to history. The founder of this movement, Locke says: ‘no knowledge comes into the mind except the gates of the senses’. However, for rationalists knowledge cannot be gained by sense.

Another consideration in the selection of knowledge is what the sociology of education says about it. According to this ideology, people construct knowledge individually and socially and learners must be engaged in their process of learning.

Considering that the principal aim of doing research is getting knowledge, it is unsurprising that those ideologies, rationalist and empiricists, have influenced the way of conducting research in education.
For rationalists the word is objective in that it exists independently of the knowers. Therefore, the researcher must be ‘very’ objective and his/her concerns must not interfere with the discovery of the ‘objective’ truth (Usher, 1996: 12).
During the middle of the 20th-century postmodernism emerged and it made us approach research in a different way. Postmodernism challenges the powerful view that there is a determinate world which can be definitively known and explained. Under this view, researchers cannot pretend to produce a text which accurately represents the world that has been researched and the researcher cannot forget who she or he is in terms of his / her values or concerns.

In my case, when I do research I normally come the topic with a pre-existing view, namely my own experience as a teacher. In this respect Robson (2007: 18) wrote, research tries to get the ‘truth’. However, even for philosophers ‘truth’ is something difficult to define. By doing research, I did not stop being a human being or a teacher and inevitably I brought my view, my values, and opinions with me when doing research. Having said that, I now know that research allows you to better understand determinate phenomena, nevertheless, you will never get the ‘real truth’ of something. The only thing we can do as researchers is to work at making sure that ‘me’ as a researcher does not bias the research.

The educational research community has reacted to the necessity of gathering information to correct mistakes and improve the system. This pressure comes from Educators, parents, students, communities, and politicians (with different political aims) Educational research is an essential component of the educational system allows you to identify problems and present solutions to current educational problems for future educators.

We do research in education to refine, modify, or develop theories. As Marguerite G. Lodico, Dean T. Spaulding, Katherine H. Voegtle say:
'Since the beginning of formalized education, research has been used to help improve education and to determine how education works in a wide range of situations. Through scientific research, educators hope to obtain accurate and reliable information about important issues and problems that face the educational community'

When doing the research you can have a Quantitative or Qualitative Research Approach. The first one summarises and reports numbers or percentage of persons reporting each response. It uses surveys as the primary method to gather data or information from people. The qualitative approach collects data through observations, interviews, and document analysis. It summarizes the findings primarily through narrative or verbal means.

Regardless of the type of research you do, do your best to contribute to the educational knowledge with different insights that can influence and change the bad practices. These changes should not only improve teaching but also learning