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Research Principles and Educational Values

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Digital Media in Education

Abstract

Chapter 3 gives an account of the principles and values that underpin the research, and the ways in which ‘ontological politics’ have informed methodology. It offers an overview of current trends in educational research in relation to wider debates on the construction of mediated knowledge and the nature and development of arts-based research methods. In a historical moment that favours centrally mandated objectives for literacy and pre-determined research outcomes, there is an emphasis rather on the educational values that imbue the case studies. This is followed by a rationale for using an (auto)ethnographic approach and techniques of participant observation and narrative representation.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The EEF is also part of the government’s ‘What Works Network’ whose remit is to “enable policy makers, commissioners and practitioners to make decisions based upon strong evidence of what works and to provide costefficient, useful services.” (What Works Network 2015).

  2. 2.

    The EEF is also part of the government’s ‘What Works Network’ whose remit is to “enable policy makers, commissioners and practitioners to make decisions based upon strong evidence of what works and to provide cost-efficient, useful services.” (What Works Network 2015).

  3. 3.

    I attended Frank Furedi’s session at the first ResearchED Conference in 2013. He went against the grain of the conference—which supported evidence-based strategies—by calling into question scientistic procedures that frame children as ‘patients’, which is language he sees as misplaced (Furedi 2013).

  4. 4.

    This approach was also adopted by renowned anthropologist Daniel Miller in his evocative account of residents on a particular London street (2008). From his observations on the belongings on display in their homes and his interview data, he constructed sensitive and compelling tales of their past and present lives.

  5. 5.

    These principles are also referenced by Bold (2012, p. 175) in her endorsement of narrative and the validity of ‘representative constructions’ (2012, p. 162).

  6. 6.

    The twist, the circularity and elasticity of the Möbius form articulate dynamic tensions in social formation and possible distortions as ideas circulate. The seamless surface offers robustness, while flexibility discourages any impulse to pin down one interpretation as ‘truth’. I imagine it to be made of translucent man-made substance: man-made denotes the socially constructed nature of the interpretive process, while translucence invokes permeability and sensitivity to light. So there is a porosity to sense-making that invites alternative frames and interpretations.

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    Michelle Cannon

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Cannon, M. (2018). Research Principles and Educational Values. In: Digital Media in Education. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78304-8_3

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