Doctor of Education (EdD), Module ER1: Introduction to Educational Research Research methodologies and methods cannot be value free. Discuss this assertion with reference to one or two-peer-reviewed research papers in an area of professional interest to you. “This is my truth, tell me yours.” The Manic Street Preachers (Epic Records: 1998) quoting Aneurin Bevan, Welsh British Labour Party politician, (15 November 1897 – 6 July 1960) (http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/a/aneurin_bevan.html) 1. Introduction "Don't let your special character and values, the secret that you know and no one else does, the truth -- don't let that get swallowed up by the great chewing complacency." Aesop Greek slave, citizen, author of fables (620-560 BC) (http://www.quotes.net/quotations/values) Science, truth, discourse ... the personal mantra emerged from my initial experiences within the Doctorate in Education programme. Or rather, science, truth and discord, as so many apparently conflicting theories, viewpoints and methodologies were compared, contrasted and digested. Particularly striking was the claim that research involves the complex interaction of the ‘researcher’s moral, competency, personal and social values’ Josephine V. Saliba Page 1
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Doctor of Education (EdD), Module ER1: Introduction to Educational Research
Research methodologies and methods cannot be value free. Discuss this assertion with
reference to one or two-peer-reviewed research papers in an area of
professional interest to you.
“This is my truth, tell me yours.”
The Manic Street Preachers (Epic Records: 1998) quoting Aneurin Bevan, Welsh British Labour Party politician, (15 November 1897 – 6 July 1960)
"Don't let your special character and values, the secret that you know and no one else does, the truth -- don't let that get swallowed up by the great chewing complacency."
Doctor of Education (EdD), Module ER1: Introduction to Educational Research
This stimulated me to not only explore the seemingly opposing qualitative methodology of
ethnography but also to explore my bias in view of these separate stances.
The parallels between my situation working in adult literacy education in Malta and the scenario
in my choice of article, Karen Vaughan’s ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart? Theoretical and ethical
implications of doing post-structural ethnographic research’, were of immediate interest. Issues
of methodological tension between diverse approaches, between educational authorities and
professionals in the educational field and the narratives of the various students passing through
the system seemed all too familiar. The motivation to explore these struggles whilst
contemporarily looking at the local situation vis-a-vis my positionality increased especially in
view of my background in political sciences. Consequently, working within a conservative
professional environment in close proximity of adult learners with a variety of learning and
literacy disadvantages coupled with a tendency to rebel against a small island culture and
mentality, together with a suspected deep-seated personal sympathy in favour of ethnography
were definite influences in the choice of theme and text for the purpose of this paper.
This meltingpot of reactions was stirred by Vaughan’s article which ‘explores some of the more
disturbing aspects’ that emerged from research she carried out in 2001 (Vaughan, 2004:389). A
New Zealand state-funded alternative secondary school once praised for its innovative
programmes was now recommended for closure by the Education Review Office. An
establishment promoting ‘active learning, a focus on students as individuals, co-operative
teacher-student class planning, and attempts to make school learning directly related to “real
life”’ was being ‘considered a failure’ (ibid:390). Vaughan’s paper explores ‘the theoretical and
ethical implications of doing a “post-structural ethnography” in a context that was intrinsically
and overly political’ (ibid:389-390) at a time when school authorities ‘were shifting away from
the influence of radical sociological educational theories towards an emphasis on particular
definitions of school effectiveness’ (ibid:391). What was once valued for its uniqueness was
now being judged by mainstream ‘post-1989 quasi-market conditions (ibid:391).
Vaughan’s research approach:
Josephine V. Saliba Page 2
Doctor of Education (EdD), Module ER1: Introduction to Educational Research
‘became based on a blend of post-structuralism (acknowledging the historical
specificity of discourse), ethnographic case study methods (data collection and
documentation), and Foucauldian notions of genealogical inquiry (disruption of
notions of progress or the apparent self-evidence of certain categories) and
governmental power relations (as a combination of totalising and individualising
modes of power) to form a “post-structural ethnography” (Britzman, 1995). This did
not make for research findings in the traditional sense, particularly not those of a
problem-solving nature, so much in favour in education currently. However this
approach did allow me to find out about what is speakable, or what is reasonable or
proper, what is within and outside the boundaries of success in schooling today.’
(Vaughan,
2004:391-392)
Vaughans’s article thus departs from the traditional to search for what lies behind the realist
tales, the tension between the ‘self-evident’ and the insistence on the validity of ‘unresolved’
issues (Vaughan, 2004:400). Quoting McNay (1994), she refuses ‘to submit to the government
of individualisation by constantly interrogating what seems natural and inevitable in our identity’
(Vaughan, 2004:401). Such introspective inquiry questioning conventional schooling is
performed through discourse exploring ‘the knowledge foundations out there in the world of
research and education and in here, within the researcher’ (ibid:401) where the accepted
positivist scientific theory and traditional role of the researcher is challenged.
My paper thus departs from the issue of discourse as a social scientific term. A background in
political sciences, communication studies and education converged on one loaded word –
‘science’. Hopf (2004) claims that discourse analysis is much more scientific than is generally
acknowledged by positivist practitioners. Unlike natural sciences, social sciences are ‘products
of human agency’ (Hopf, 2004:31), where ‘meanings stand mostly in relation to each other,
rather than in relationship to an objective reality’ (ibid). However, this does not detract from the
scientific nature of social sciences since, as Gadamer (1981) argued, the two strands are merely
seperated by the difference in their aims of knowledge. Yet, social sciences require ‘the
emergence of a new notion of science and method’ (Gadamer, 1981:6). Discourse analysts need
Josephine V. Saliba Page 3
Doctor of Education (EdD), Module ER1: Introduction to Educational Research
to adhere to ‘some common forms of research design and social science methodology’
(Hopf, 2004:32) based on‘methodological self-consciousness’ that considers ‘the replicability
and competitive validity of their findings’ (ibid.).
Nevertheless, in a developing country where dialogue is the buzzword usually preceding
educational reforms and innovations by authorities, traditional scientific data and statistics have
become as influential as political or religious convictions (Baldacchino and Mayo, 1997).
Positivist scientific data legitimising the administration’s position prevails as proof for the
necessity of change and positivist studies backup the effectiveness of the benchmarks proposed.
Malta’s hierarchical education setup often indulges in token allusions to dialogue
(Bezzina, 1999). Therefore, Vaughan’s article had personal appeal not only due to the questions
raised by the programme lectures but also because issues of dialogue, truth and narratives
raise regular professional standoffs.
This paper, similarly to Vaughan’s, thus focuses on tensions between various interpretations as
to the value of truth. It specifically discusses the interaction between the general attitude of local
education administrative authorities and my stance as a practitioner who is professionally and
ethically bound to convey the voices of my students within the college’s fora of dialogue. To
this end, Vaughan’s post-structural approach is discussed as well as compared and contrasted
with more traditional and positivist values. The paper concludes by considering whether such a
methodology would professionally benefit me to engage in an educational dialogue that is more
real, valid and participatory in an environment where multiple values and truths can be shared in
a more collegial rather than hierarchic manner.
2. In search of the ‘truth’
"… truth and reality are indeed invoked through discourse.”Karen Vaughan
New Zealand Council for Educational Research(http://www.runninghot.org.nz/)
Josephine V. Saliba Page 4
Doctor of Education (EdD), Module ER1: Introduction to Educational Research
Vaughan’s article intends to engage its audience in the discourse initiated throughout her
research project. Major dictionaries equate discourse with dialogue, debate and semantics.
Following Foucault (1977, 1980, 2003), discourse became closely associated with theories of
power and the state where language is institutionalised to affect a possible truth or truths as
various protagonists struggle for power. The priveledged powerful can affect views and values
by constructing social rituals that further exploit the power-knowledge relationship. Britzman
(1995), interprets this relationship from the post-structuralist stance. Departing from the purely
scientific structuralist viewpoint, she asserts the necessity to study the processes which produce
knowledge. Hence she questions the ‘authority of empiricism, the authority of language, and the
authority of reading or understanding’ (Britzman, 1995:230). Quoting Said (1978), Britzman
encourages the study of the structures that make up and explain the narrative texts of particular
macro and micro cultures (ibid:229).
Following Britzman, Vaughan explores the Foucauldian ‘regimes of truth’ and through discourse
analyses the reality that ‘several competing sides’ construct through subjective ‘representation of
the truth or right’, a reality that, as Britzman states, might be assumed to be ‘somehow out there
waiting to be captured by language’ (Vaughan, 2004:392). Vaughan further challenges this
assumption that might lend itself to positivist arguments of truth or fiction within traditional
ethnography. She adopts post-structuralism and Foucauldian genealogy to portray reality as a
historically specific discourse where that particular reality is ‘produced through a web of power
relations/discursive practices’ (ibid:392). Thus Vaughan challenges the traditional simplistic
meaning of discourse as dialogue especially when used as a term to reinforce
traditional power relations.
This challenge is locally topical. The Maltese equivalent of discourse means a formal exchange
of words in debates where people are free to agree or disagree, often most emphatically in a
typically Mediterranean way, with the ideas of a main speaker. The formal term used is diskors.
Deriving from the Latin discursus meaning to run to and from, it aptly describes formal
debates such as budget speeches id-diskors tal-budget or even gossip diskors \ejjed,
situations which are not renowned for their strict adherence to the truth.
The Maltese language distinguishes between the etymological Latin derivation
Josephine V. Saliba Page 5
Doctor of Education (EdD), Module ER1: Introduction to Educational Research
and the original Semitic word for spoken dialogue which is ta]dit or more colloquially titkellem.
Ta]dit is how ordinary folk informally converse about mundane topics.
The original Semitic ]adit literally means the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad about the word
of Allah. Subsequent Catholic domination eradicated ]adit from the vernacular but not the word
titkellem. Titkellem’ originates from kelma meaning word. The surviving expression tag]ti
kelma literally means to give your honest and true word. Jitkellmu, they talk, is even today used
to describe genuine consultation and participation in debates or issues (Aquilina, 1987, 2006).
These dialectic meanings of diskors possibly evolved from the historical political and
socio-evolutionary processes of an island culture. Eastern and Western colonisers imposed
diverse cultures, languages, values and beliefs for hundreds of years and the local population
internalised the dichotomy that to speak to each other, jit]addtu or jg]idu kelma was somehow
perceived to be more real or true than the diskors of the rulers and politicians that was and
remains most often mistrusted. This perception thus ingrained in the language of the people is an
influence to be taken into account by social scientists attempting to tackle local discourses
between the researcher, the researched and the entity commissioning research
of particular social impact.
Hence, it is worthwhile to turn back to Vaughan’s article and the Foucauldian principles it
endorses. Foucault’s episteme (1980) outlines the conditions which shape particular versions of
the truth created at a historical point in time and within which knowledge and discourses operate.
Significantly, Vaughan’s paper illustrates Foucault’s hypothesis that several epistemes may co-
exist and interact within the same power-knowledge system. Most notably, however, Vaughan
undertakes the scientific journey according to how Foucault proposes the
fundamental search for truth ought to be:
‘the strategic apparatus which permits (...) separating out from among all the
statements which are possible those that will be acceptable within, I won’t say a
scientific theory, but a field of scientificity, and which it is possible to say are true or
false. The episteme is the ‘apparatus’ which makes possible the separation, not of the
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Doctor of Education (EdD), Module ER1: Introduction to Educational Research
true from the false, but of what may from what may not be
characterised as scientific.’ (Michel Foucault, 1980:197)
Foucault's episteme challenges the scientific interpretation of discourse in its widest sense. Since
discourse is limited by ideology, so it is important to show how ideology influences the science
used to gain particular instances of knowledge/truth. However, this should not be limited to
challenging the establishment. Ethnography risks indulgent self-righteousness as it ‘immediately
places the researcher in a tricky situation since any research that involves real people raises
tremendous pressure to take a humanist and holistic line, to produce the research as
a kind of “victory narrative”’ (Vaughan, 2004:393).
Nonetheless, Vaughan’s interpretation of Foucauldian post-structural ethnography may
substantiate how opposing theories and themes could co-exist within a science thus challenging
fundamental positivist assumptions that are so basic as to be invisible to people operating within
that historic specificity. Vaughan states that post-structural ethnography is particularly suitable
in challenging traditional positivist as well as ethnographic stances since it ‘highlights a
multiplicity of voices and discourses’ (Burstyn, 1990 in Vaughan, 2004:393). Vaughan’s article
thus embraces the search for knowledge by questioning the scientific process behind the power-
struggle discourses of both participants and researcher. This places Vaughan’s interpretation and
application of discourse at the frontline of current theories about the validity
of discourse as a scientific process.
3. Positivist values of truth: the influence of authority
"Man is fed with fables through life, and leaves it in the belief he knows something of what has been passing, when in truth he has known nothing but what has passed under his own eye."
Thomas JeffersonThird President of the United States
principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776)(April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826)
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