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Learning From Our Differences: A Dialogue Across Perspectives on Quality in Education Research
Pamela A. Moss,
D. C. Phillips,
Frederick D. Erickson,
Robert E. Floden,
Patti A. Lather and
Barbara L. Schneider
PAMELA A. MOSS is a professor of education at the University of Michigan, 4220 SEB, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1259; pamoss{at}umich.edu. Her research interests are at the intersections of educational assessment, validity theory, and interpretive social science.
D. C. PHILLIPS is professor emeritus of education and (by courtesy) philosophy at Stanford University, 485 Lasuen Mall, Stanford, CA 94305-3096; d.c.phillips{at}gmail.com. His areas of research interest include philosophical and methodological issues in social science and education research and in constructivist positions in psychology, sociology, and science.
FREDERICK D. ERICKSON is the George F. Kneller Professor of Anthropology of Education in the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, Box 951521, 1002 MH, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1251; ferickson{at}gseis.ucla. edu. His research interests include organization and conduct of face-to-face interaction, sociolinguistic discourse analysis, ethnographic research methods, study of social interaction as a learning environment, and anthropology of education.
ROBERT E. FLODEN is the University Distinguished Professor of Education at Michigan State University, 116M Erickson Hall East, Lansing, MI 48824-1034; floden{at}msu.edu. He has studied teacher education and other influences on teaching and learning, including work on the cultures of teachers, on teacher development, on the character and effects of teacher education, and on how policy is linked to classroom practice.
PATTI A. LATHER is a professor of education at Ohio State University, 101B Ramseyer Hall, 29 West Woodruff, Columbus, OH 43210; lather.1{at}osu.edu. Her work examines various (post) critical, feminist, and poststructural theories, most recently with a focus on the implications for qualitative inquiry of the call for scientifically based research in education.
BARBARA L. SCHNEIDER is the John A. Hannah Distinguished Professor of Education and a professor of sociology at Michigan State University, 516B Erickson Hall East, Lansing, MI 48824-1034; bschneid{at}msu.edu. Her research interests include sociology of education, scale-up research, and quasi-experimental designs for estimating causal effects.
The dialogue re-presented in this article is intended to foster mutual engagement—and opportunity for learning—across different perspectives on research within the education research community. Participants in the dialogue each addressed the following questions: (1) What are the touchstones by which you judge quality or rigor in education research (for a single study, a set of studies, or a "field" or community of researchers in dialogue)? What is your chief concern or fear that the touchstones guard against? (2) Where do you see challenges to your perspective in the perspectives of other members of the panel? How might your perspective evolve to respond to those challenges? Given all of this, what are the implications for the preparation of education researchers? Opening and closing comments set the dialogue in historical context, highlight issues raised, and suggest next steps for collaborative learning from the diversity of perspectives in our field.
Key Words: epistemology • philosophy of social science • research methodology
Educational Researcher, Vol. 38, No. 7,
501-517 (2009)
DOI: 10.3102/0013189X09348351
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