The Politics of Method: From Leftist Ethnography to Educative Research, A Gitlin et al, 1989, Vol 1 Reader, p191

Educative Ethnographic Research Exerts Emancipatory Change

A Gitlin, M Stegal and K Born exhort emancipatory educational researchers using ethnographical (writing about people) methodology to be more critical, to adopt a conceptual framework that is political. They call this alternative framework Educative Research.

Educative Research:

1. Is "in and for education"
2. Conceives of "application and understanding as bound up in a single moment"
3. Puts "the researcher back into research"

This is more than pedantry because the practice 18 years ago was that validity and rigour in ethnographical studies required

1. Research on and about education - descriptive, rather than interpretive
2. Separation of understanding from application - critique by the researcher was absent (i.e. the researcher had a voice as a fieldworker but not as an author)
3. The researcher presented without prejudice.

The argument is simple but effective: if you want change to result from the sociological system that you are researching, say so up front and select an appropriate ethnographical methodology, enter into dialogue with participants and subjects as necessary during the research to affect that change, and write it up with your politics and interactions available for critical scrutiny. Thick description is less important than honesty of purpose.

"While most ethnographic research has looked back to show how it is objective and therefore is as valuable as the dominant positivistic paradigm [quantitative research], educative research looks forward to the fulfillment of purpose. " (p205)

The question begged, of course, is what will provide the validity and rigour for educative research?

"The rightness of educative research is based on the relation between normative frameworks established by a dialogical community and the specific practices of the study." (p207)

The educative researcher will explicitly state embedded pre-judgements, opening them up for critical scrutiny.

"The political moment inherent in all method is made explicit."

How radical is this paper?

This paper appears to be radical, as it sets out to define a new framework, educative research. However, it is focused on emancipatory motivated ethnographic researchers, and it may simply be an extension of work by Phillips, and perhaps, Kemis. It justifies itself by embedded pre-jugements being explictly stated and available for critical scutiny. In the field, anyone carrying out educative research would undoubtledly be bold.

S Kemis (1988) argued that practitioners in Action Research could also participate, and that may have influenced this paper. How far removed is participative practitioner research from politically influenced ethnographic methodology?

D C Philips's (1989) argued that action researchers may achieve consensus with peers about their aims and methodology so that it becomes objective in a practical sense. In the case of educative research, it is an explicit emancipatory purpose that is exposed to scrutiny.

Phillips and Gital et al seem to be of the same mind and Action Research in the 21st Century may have been greatly influenced by these 20th Century papers.

It should be noted that this paper attempts to apply "praxis" as a justification for educative research. It is superfluous, but also flawed. It argues that theory and practice are equal, just as Carr and Kemis did in their papers. Theory is subordinate to practice, as Aristotle who coined the term argued; his rationale was that logic could produce paradox but practice overcomes such circumlocution. In context, research practice must be more important than theory or the tail will wag the dog. Imagine an experiment to weigh water. Theory dictates it weighs 1 Kg for a litre but scales show a different value. If theory and practice (praxis) are co-equal, the water must weigh 1 Kg and the scales are wrong. In fact, the temperature and atmospheric pressure must be taken into account and the theory changed to accommodate. Thus, theory is subservient to practice - they are not and can not be co-equal. Carr, Kemis and these researchers do seem to have been obsessed with redefining praxis.