Research methodology, education, and theoretical fashions: Constructing a methodology course in an era of deconstruction

Abstract

In this article a case is made both for the utility of deconstructive questions and also for the danger of taking such questions as a sole or overriding methodological agenda in education. The discussion is mounted by attention to grounded contexts and dilemmas rather than by a commitment to abstract concerns about “power” or “Other” or “polyphony of voices.” The framing dilemma is how one might construct a research methodology course that is not based on positivism, relativism, or a reification of current theory as an enduring answer for students. The article takes two substantive fields of inquiry in education-(1) inequality and access in education and (2) gender and education- to argue th..