Abstract
Dissatisfaction with current approaches to research in educational contexts has lead to a search for new direction—both methodologically and theoretically. Recent trends in educational research suggest that a dialectical theoretical orientation,as outlined by Riegel (1979), can offer useful guidelines for formulating substantive research questions and generating the scope and structure of theoretical concepts relevant to studying educational settings. At the same time, ethnography, the method of inquiry of sociocultural anthropology, promises to provide a compatible valid organon (Rychlak, 1976) or set of basic principles for conducting educational research on topics of interest to dialecticians. Further, by conducting educational ethnographies within Riegel’s dialectical framework, researchers will be in sync with the actors in the social scenes under investigation, since it appears probable that students learn ethnographically and think dialectically.
This chapter was facilitated by an award (NIE-C-400-78-0061) made by the National Institute of Education to the Department of Higher and Adult Education, Arizona State University. The views expressed in this chapter are the authors’ and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Institute of Education.
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Okun, M.A., Fisk, E.C., Brandt, E.A. (1983). Dialectics, Ethnography, and Educational Research. In: Bain, B. (eds) The Sociogenesis of Language and Human Conduct. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-1525-2_24
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