In this introductory session we will explore the meaning of methodology. We will do this by comparing accounts taken from a variety of methodology textbooks, and the ways in which they seem to suggest it might be possible to think about ‘methodology’, for example:
We will also consider the difference between accounts provided by text books about how to do research; and accounts provided in the sociology of science/research, which investigates how researchers actually go about the process of doing research. We will talk about approaches to reading both of these kinds of texts, and how and whether they might be useful to you at different stages of your research.
KUHN, T. (1970) ‘The Nature of Normal Science’, Chapter 3 in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago. University of Chicago Press. pp. 23-34
See also preface and earlier chapters, pp. vii - 22
DOWLING, P.C. & BROWN, A.J. (2010). Doing Research/Reading Research: Re-interrogating education. Second Edition. London. Routledge.
BOURDIEU, P. (2006). Science of Science and Reflexivity. Cambridge.Polity Press.
KUHN, T. (1970). The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago. Chicago University Press.
LAW, J. ( 2004). After Method: mess in social science research. London. Routledge.
LATHER, P. (1991). Getting Smart: Feminist research and pedagogy within the postmodern. London: Routledge.
LATOUR, B. & WOOLGAR, S. (1986). Laboratory Life: the construction of scientific facts. Princeton. Princeton University Press.
USHER, R. (1996). ‘A critique of the neglected epistemological assumptions of educational research’ in D. SCOTT & R. USHER. (Eds). Understanding Educational Research.London. Routledge.