Educational Research Approaches: A Comparison

by

Judith Schoonenboom

• LAST MODIFIED: 24 July 2024
• DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199756810-0321

General Introduction

Choosing a research approach is not an easy task, given the number and variety of viable alternatives in different educational research contexts. Educational research approaches hold different perspectives on reality and research. Foregoing these differences at a technical level, this article focuses on the fundamental questions that each research approach should address: Why do researchers conduct educational research? What is its aim? What is the object of study? What type(s) of entities exist? What is knowledge? Whose knowledge counts? How can knowledge be achieved? To such fundamental questions, different educational research approaches provide different answers. This article addresses these questions, with the aim to support educational researchers in selecting a research approach(es). The initial section discusses the Philosophical Backgrounds of Educational Research Approaches. Next, research approaches are presented and compared, divided into the following three broad groups based on the overall research aim: Discovering Causal Effects and Mechanisms, Transformative Approaches, and Investigating Realities. Within each group, various approaches are described. The last three sections discuss how research approaches can be compared and combined. Comparing Research Approaches: Handbooks on Education and Social Science Research discusses comparisons of approaches to education and social science research found in the methodological literature. In Comparing Research Approaches: Comparing Approaches in Action, to further underscore these differences, publications are presented in which various approaches have been used to examine the same real-life phenomenon. The final section presents the various ways in which researchers have been Combining Research Approaches.

Philosophical Backgrounds of Educational Research Approaches

In choosing a research approach, it is important to understand the approach and its philosophical background. An overview of philosophical traditions relevant to different research approaches is provided in Howell 2013. An in-depth treatment of these various approaches and their philosophical backgrounds in education scholarship can be found in the book series Burbules 2000–2012; two of these volumes are discussed in this article (see Phillips and Burbules 2000, cited under Discovering Causal Effects and Mechanisms, and Biesta and Burbules 2003, cited under Transformative Approaches). Biesta 2020 discusses philosophical backgrounds as tools that can be used to achieve different purposes in educational research. See also the section titled “Philosophy and Education Research” of the separate Oxford Bibliographies article Philosophy of Education. Emmel 2013 describes four approaches to sampling and provides insights into differences among the philosophical backgrounds of these research approaches in which each sampling type is used (see also the separate Oxford Bibliographies article Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Research Sampling Strategies). Mertens 2018 refers to the paradigms of (post)positivism, constructivism, pragmatism, transformative paradigm, and dialectical pluralism to describe and compare five types of mixed methods evaluation research (see also the separate Oxford Bibliographies articles Methodological Approaches for Impact Evaluation in Educational Settings and Program Evaluation). In the past decades, different philosophical foundations have been developed for mixed methods research in educational and social science. Six of them are collected in Shan 2024.

• Biesta, G. 2020. Educational research: An unorthodox introduction. London: Bloomsbury Academic.

  This book aims to help educational researchers conduct their research more thoughtfully. Among other things, it argues that philosophical backgrounds, often considered positions researchers take, should instead be viewed as tools. Philosophical backgrounds as tools can be used to achieve three broad and nested purposes: explanation, understanding, and emancipation. Based on Dewey’s transactional theory of knowing, the author advocates research that probes deeper into the dynamics of educational systems.

• Burbules, N. C., ed. 2000–2012. Philosophy, theory, and educational research. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

  The series Philosophy, Theory, and Educational Research ran between 2000 and 2012 and was edited by Nicholas Burbules. Each of the four volumes discusses one philosophical tradition—postpositivism, pragmatism, post-structuralism, and feminism, respectively—and its relevance to educational research. Each volume shows how philosophical and theoretical positions determine the research methods, aims, and validity criteria of the approaches based on these positions.

• Emmel, N. 2013. Sampling and choosing cases in qualitative research: A realist approach. London: SAGE.

  DOI: 10.4135/9781473913882

  Emmel explains how four approaches to sampling can be derived from the research approaches in which they are embedded. In grounded theory, theoretical sampling emerges from the theory for studying reality or experiences. Realist research uses sampling based on causal mechanisms. In a pragmatist approach, purposeful sampling is driven by practical and pragmatic considerations. Theoretical or purposive sampling is driven by the detailed knowledge that a researcher wants to obtain about a reality or context.

• Howell, K. E. 2013. An introduction to the philosophy of methodology. London: SAGE.

  DOI: 10.4135/9781473957633

  Howell connects methodologies and philosophical traditions. First, this book provides an in-depth discussion of philosophical traditions, such as empiricism, positivism, postpositivism, phenomenology, constructivism, and post-structuralism, along with their views on truth, reality, and knowledge. Next, Howell explains how various methodologies, such as ethnography, grounded theory, and hermeneutics, are related to these philosophical traditions regarding topics such as knowledge, truth, reality, validity criteria, and research aims, such as explanation and understanding.

• Mertens, D. M. 2018. Mixed methods design in evaluation. Los Angeles: SAGE.

  DOI: 10.4135/9781506330631

  In this book, Mertens compares five different paradigmatic approaches to mixed methods evaluation research. This book contains chapters on mixed methods approaches to: (1) intervention evaluation, (2) instrument development, (3) policy evaluation, and (4) systematic reviews. Each chapter is subdivided into five branches, each connected to a different paradigm: methods (positivism and postpositivism), values (constructivism), use (pragmatism), social justice (transformative paradigm), and dialectical pluralism (combination of paradigms).

• Shan, Y., ed. 2024. Philosophical foundations of mixed methods research: Dialogues between philosophers and researchers. London: Routledge.

  In this book, twelve scholars, most of them connected to educational research, discuss the philosophical foundations of mixed methods research. Six mixed methods scholars describe their pragmatist, transformative, decolonizing, dialectic, dialectical pluralist, performative, and realist approaches. Philosophers challenge these approaches, and discuss whether they provide a strong or weak foundation for mixed methods research. They relate mixed methods research to three types of pluralism: methodological, evidential, and causal.