Dynamic methods for research in education

Alexander Wettstein

Beat Thommen

pp. 353-382

in: Jaan Valsiner, Peter Molenaar, Maria Lyra, Nandita Chaudhary (eds), Dynamic process methodology in the social and developmental sciences, Berlin, Springer, 2009

Abstract

Education is concerned with initiating and attending to developmental processes, a highly dynamic subject matter. Therefore, research in education faces great challenges. The methods used in education research, however, frequently fail to take into consideration fully the very dimension of process and development. In many cases, the methods follow a research ideal informed by the natural sciences; often they are borrowed or derived from sciences such as astronomy, agricultural research, or classical physics (see Porter, 1986). There are great discrepancies between theoretical positions, the intrinsic dynamics of the examined phenomena, and the methods used which, in the main, support a static approach.