Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Scientism and Education

Empirical Research as Neo-Liberal Ideology

  • Book
  • © 2007

Overview

Authors:
  1. Emery J. Hyslop-Margison

    1. University of New Brunswick, Canada

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

  2. M. Ayaz Naseem

    1. Concordia University, Canada

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • An accessible and trenchant critique of current research practice in education
  • Offers an exposé of the ideological reasons behind empirical research in education
  • Proposes alternative practices to strengthen democratic learning practices

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this book

Log in via an institution
eBook USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

Licence this eBook for your library

Institutional subscriptions

Table of contents (6 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xvii
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction

    Pages 1-7

  3. Education Research

    Pages 8-36

  4. Epistemological Problems in Social Science Research

    Pages 37-58

  5. Empirical Research in Education

    Pages 59-86

  6. Education Research as Analytic Truths

    Pages 87-104

  7. Empirical Research as Neo-liberal Ideology

    Pages 105-125

  8. Back Matter

    Pages 126-134
    Download chapter PDF
Back to top

Keywords

About this book

We presently live in an era dominated by scientism, an ideology that believes that science (and its rationalist foundation in modern epistemology) has an undeniable primacy over all other ways of seeing and understanding life and the world, including more humanistic, mythical, spiritual, and artistic interpretations. In being critical of scientism as I am, I am not against science per se: modern science and its ways of understanding and knowing the world are valuable, and we should be grateful for them. But it is the hegemony of the habits of mind that manifest pervasively in education that privilege science education, career, and research over other modes and branches of learning and knowing that I have problems with. I have too often witnessed parents overtly or subtly discouraging their children from following artistic or humanistic aspirations and pushing them for training and careers in Science, Math, Business, and Technology. In this society we say in a thousand and one ways that money, security, power, and ultimately fulfillment reside in these disciplines and not in the Arts, Humanities, and Philosophy. We valorize scientists, and even when they speak on subjects outside their domain of expertise, we take their opinions and pronouncements as definitively authoritative. When Science speaks, people listen. This hegemonic attitude towards Science and other subjects that require the exercise of our rational and intellectual faculty is reflected in educational research as well.

Authors and Affiliations

  • University of New Brunswick, Canada

    Emery J. Hyslop-Margison

  • Concordia University, Canada

    M. Ayaz Naseem

Bibliographic Information

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Back to top

Search

Navigation