This set of slides has been prepared for a workshop “Interdisciplinary methods for researching teaching and learning”. It summarises some ideas about intellectual work across conventional (disciplinary) boundaries in education. A number of them draw on the experiences writing Epistemic fluency book and working in the field of the leaning sciences more generally. The main message is the paradoxical tension between what educational research is as practice and how educational research is organised and institutionalised as a formal research field (aka. discipline). Research-as-science, ….as disciplined inquiry 1. Finite cluster of social sciences: psychology, sociology, etc 2. Loose groupings: curriculum, professional development, etc 3. Discipline(s) on its own right: the learning sciences, other institutionalised practices Research-as-project …as activity in the world 1. “Normal” science-as-project: compact vs. diffuse; explanatory vs. interpretative; conceptually driven vs. textually driven; explicit vs. implicit. 2. Researcher-participant collaboration 3. Multi-, Inter-, Trans-tribal research

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Interdisciplinary
methods for researching
teaching and learning
Workshop
Lina Markauskaitė
24 November 2016 @ University of
Stirling

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Background

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My 2 (out of 5) “modes” of making
interdisciplinarity

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Interdisciplinarity: ‘hot’ but not ‘new’
Origins
– Circa1920
– US Social Science
Research Council
– A bureaucratic shorthand
to refer to all SRC’s
societies

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Two images of interdisciplinary: Bright
From Frank, 1988, p. 146

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What do we mean by it?
From Frank, 1988, p. 143

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Interdisciplinarities…
Multidisciplinarity
Within disciplines
Close disciplines
Complementing
Methodological
Instrumental
‘Single man’ science
Cooperative
Collocated
Knowledge focussed
Professional
Transdisciplinarity
Across disciplines
Remote disciplines
Hybridizing
Theoretical
Critical
Team science
Collaborative
Remote
Problem-focused
Social
Integration
Scope
Proximity
Function
Extent
Sharing
Nature
Mode
Role
Distribution
Space

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Disciplines of education
1. Psychology
2. Sociology
3. Philosophy
4. History
5. Economics
6. Comparative ed
7. Geography
8. …
Education as major “importer” from other disciplines
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v534/n7609/ful…

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What is “within” and what is “across”?
Education as an (interdisciplinary) field of study
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v534/n7609/ful…

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Discipline as…
…a set of shared dispositions
about:
a) Objects
b) Evidence
c) Methods
d) Expertise
Production of cumulative
knowledge
A dual mandate of “science”:
• values intellectual agency
• imposes constrains on
knowledge development
https://www.findaupair.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/kids-discipline

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Educational research as…
Research-as-science
1. Finite cluster of social
sciences: psychology,
sociology, etc
2. Loose groupings:
curriculum, professional
development, etc
3. Discipline(s) on its own
right: the learning
sciences, other
institutionalised practices
….as disciplined inquiry
Research-as-project
1. “Normal” science-as-
project: diffuse,
interpretative, textually
driven, implicit
2. Researcher-participant
collaboration
3. Multi-, Inter-, Trans-tribal
research
…as activity in the world
MacDonald, 1994; Tolumin, 1972

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Has educational research
ever been mono-
disciplinary?
John Furlong, 2016 Nov 17

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Your questions, comments, reflections…
1. How do you describe your “tradition”?
2. What is “inter-” in your project?
Education
Source: http://xkcd.com/435/

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EXAMPLE 1:
‘Easy’ interdisciplinarity
Following a tradition

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From ISLS Vision 2009
Interdisciplinary tradition of the learning
sciences

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A view of learning
Learning is distributed…
…across people, and across tools and artifacts.
Activity
System
…therefore, it is situated and,
importantly, mediated.
Research involves production of
design artefacts – technology,
models, principles, theories

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Design-based research
…a systematic but flexible
methodology aimed to improve
educational practices through
iterative analysis, design,
development, and implementation,
based on collaboration among
researchers and practitioners in
real-world settings, and leading to
contextually-sensitive design
principles and theories.
Wang & Hannafin, 2005, p.
6
…involves the creation of a
theoretically-inspired innovation,
usually a learning environment, to
directly address a local problem.
Barab, 2008, p. 155
Action
research
(Lab)
experimen
ts
DBR

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DBR: Main steps & characteristics
1. Grounded in theory and
real-world settings
2. Addresses theory-
building and practice
innovation
3. Interactive, participatory
4. Iterative, flexible
5. Integrative (mixed
methods)
6. Contextual
1 Exploration and
development of
“grounded models”
2 Development of
artifacts
3 Feasibility/Field
Study/ Definitive
Test
4. Dissemination &
Impact
5. Refinement
Middleton et al, 2008

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Example: Learning about climate systems
– Learning complexity
knowledge
– “Productive failure” and
analogical encoding
– Developing concrete
models, worksheets, etc
– Trialing solutions in a
classroom, refining
Acknowledgement: ARC Linkage project with Michael Jacobson

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DBR: Some challenges
1. Researcher-participant relationship and roles
2. Hawthorne effect
3. Reliability and validity
4. Capturing context and process
5. Managing, integrating and analyzing various, often ‘rich’,
data formats
Design &
Refine
Implement &
Observe
Analyze
Design &
Refine
Implement &
Observe
Analyze

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EXAMPLE 2:
‘Hard’
interdisciplinarity
Working outside
educational traditions

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Some layers of social inquiry: and living
between the “ends”
What kind of conclusions will
we be able to draw?
Where do we focus?
What kind of evidence do we
collect?
What things do we choose to
notice?
How do we know & research?
What kinds of questions do we
ask?ONTOLOGY
EPISTEMOLOGY
METHODOLOGY
INSTRUMENTATION
DATA
ANALYTICAL TECHNIQUES
Realism
Positivism
Nomothetic
Segregation
Numerical
Statistical
Nominalism
Anti-positivist
Ideographic
Integration
Qualitative
Interpretative

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“Descartes error”
Post-positivism Critical
(Discourse analysis)
Participatory,
Constructivist
(Action research)
Post-modernism
New materialism
Ecological perspectives
Performative
(Arts-based inquiry)
Complexity
Positivist Interpretativist
(Interaction analysis, Phenomenology)
Critical realism
(Design based research)
Feminism
(Discourse analysis)

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“Performative” science
Ontology
– Materialist
– Phenomenological
– Psychology of perception
Epistemology
– Performative: centrality of
“raw” perception, skill, body
and action
– [Anthropology] is not a study of at
all, but a study with.
Anthropologists work and study
with people. Immersed with them in
an environment of joint activity, they
learn to see things (or hear them, or
touch them) <…> it educates our
perception of the world, and opens
our eyes and minds to other
possibilities of being.” (Ingold,
2010, 238)
Material ecology
It is NOT an eclectic constellation of
different ontologies, epistemologies
and methodologies

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Example: Studying “actionable knowledge”
Ontology: realist, dynamic
Axiology: internal-external
Epistemology: manifold
Human nature: grounded
Methodology: interpretativeImmanuel Kant
1724-1804
Thomas S. Kuhn
1922-1996
David Hume
1711-1776
Manuel Delanda
Lawrence Barsalou
Stephen Toulmin
1922-2009
Atkinson & Shriffin
Grounded cognition & manifold view of human conceptual understanding
It is NOT an eclectic constellation

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Research as “method” and Research as “craft”
Design
Data
Analysis
Findings
Hypothesis
Design
Data
Analysis
Findings
Hypothesis
Design
Data
Analysis
Hypothesis
Data
Analysis
Analysis
Analysis
Hypothesis
Findings
Findings
Findings
Improvisation based on Patton (2011) Developmental evaluation

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Traditional challenges
Design
Data
Analysis
Findings
Hypothesis
Design
Data
Analysis
Hypothesis
Data
Analysis
Analysis
Analysis
Hypothesis
Findings
Findings
Findings
Improvisation based on Patton (2011) Developmental evaluation
1. Lack of compact theoretical language
2. No ready methodological toolbox
3. Being outside “epistemic renting” culture
4. Creating cumulative knowledge

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Your questions and comments
1. What are your main methodological challenges working in
your “inter” spaces?
Education
Source: http://xkcd.com/435/

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Interdisciplinary work requires
epistemological awareness and...
epistemic fluency
Email:
Lina.Marakauskaite@sydney.edu.au
My final note