Building an Epistemological Stance

Theresa (Terri) Thorkildsen

Professor of Education and Psychology

University of Illinois at Chicago

Educational researchers struggle with a number of tensions that are easiest to understand as

spectra for positioning our work.

Cherryholmes, 1988

Do knowledge forms differ depending on the discipline?

Or, is knowledge independent of disciplines such that disciplines serve as lenses though which we understand what exists?

Do you see knowledge as completely dynamic or as something tangible that learners can acquire ?

Does knowledge exist independent of culture?

Does knowledge emerge from shared cultural assumptions?

Is knowledge constructed?

Is knowledge discovered?

Truth Opinion

Is knowledge objective or subjective in your topical area?

Common Epistemological Stances

Objectivist—Meaning and reality are independent of consciousness. Researchers discover meaning that awaits them; truth and reality are to be discovered.

Constructionist—Meaning and reality are invented. Researchers construct meaning by fully engaging in subject-object relations; truth and meaning emerge from subject-object relations.

Subjectivist—Meaning is imposed on objects by a subject and comes from intangible sources such as dreams, spirituality, or the unconscious. Researchers explore meaning by considering ideas in relation to one another rather than in relation to a tangible “reality”.

Crotty, 1998

• Matters of Logic

• Empirical Regularities

• Physical Laws

• Constitutive Conventions

• Regulative Conventions

• Controversial Issues

• Personal Matters

What types of data sources will

constitute evidence in your research?

What epistemological stances are commonly evident in

educational research?

Some evidence exists for all these stances, but there are marked differences across program areas.

Thanks for listening!

Cherryholmes, C. H. (1988). Construct validity and the discourses of research. American Journal of Education, 96, 421-457.

Crotty, M. (1998). Foundations of social research: A conceptually oriented book. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.

References