Perplexing Times in Educational Research and the Prospects for a New Platinum Standard

Abstract

D.C. Phillips argues for a platinum standard for educational research and though it is a step in the right the right direction, the disparate voices in educational research make it difficult to see its implementation. Moreover, what might sink the adoption of such a standard is the Deweyan pragmatism that Phillips espouses, since it seems to lead to relativism and a denial that disparate methods might provide different perspectives on the one truth. The view that scientific or quantitative research methods are somehow more objective depends very largely on what is meant by the term “objective”. The statistical methods which are seen as providing an objective assessment of an educational problem are not devoid of subjective choices and in many cases are a blunt instrument. Qualitative methods have their place, and educational researchers need to find ways in which practitioners using different research methodologies can work collaboratively.