Table Of ContentEducational Research: The Ethics and Aesthetics
of Statistics
Educational Research
VOLUME5
Aims&Scope
Freedom of inquiry in educational research can no longer be taken for granted.
Narrow definitions of what constitutes ‘scientific’ research, funding criteria that
enforceparticularresearchmethods,andpolicydecisionprocessesthatignoreany
research that is not narrowly utilitarian, in many countries, create a context that
discouragesscholarshipofamorespeculative,exploratory,orcriticalsort.
In this series, internationally leading scholars in philosophy and history of edu-
cation engage in discourse that is sophisticated and nuanced for understanding
contemporarydebates.Thussocialresearch,andthereforeeducationalresearch,is
again focused on the distinctive nature of what it studies: a social activity where
questions of meaning and value must be addressed, and where interpretation and
judgmentplayacrucialrole.
Thiseducationalresearchtakesintoaccountthehistoricalandculturalcontextand
brings clarity to what actually constitutes science in this area. The timely issues
that are addressed in this series bear witness to the belief that educational theory
cannot help but go beyond a limited conception of empirical educational research
toprovidearealunderstandingofeducationasahumanpractice.Theysurpassthe
rathersimplecause-andeffectrhetoricandthustransgressthepictureofperforma-
tivity that currently keeps much of the talk about education captive. The authors
areunitedinthebeliefthat‘thereisaplacewithinthesocialsciences ingeneral’,
and within the discipline of education in particular, for ‘foundational’ approaches
thatenablethesystematicstudyofeducationalpracticefromadiscipline-orientated
approach.
·
Paul Smeyers Marc Depaepe
Editors
Educational Research: The
Ethics and Aesthetics
of Statistics
123
Editors
Prof.PaulSmeyers Prof.MarcDepaepe
UniversiteitGent KatholiekeUniversiteitLeuven
FaculteitPsychologieenPedagogische CampusKortrijk
Wetenschappen SubfaculteitPsychologieen
Dunantlaan1 Pedagogische
9000Gent Wetenschappen
Belgium Sabbelaan53
[email protected] 8500Kortrijk
Belgium
[email protected]
ISBN978-90-481-9872-6 e-ISBN978-90-481-9873-3
DOI10.1007/978-90-481-9873-3
SpringerDordrechtHeidelbergLondonNewYork
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2010936458
©SpringerScience+BusinessMediaB.V.2010
Nopartofthisworkmaybereproduced,storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmittedinanyformorby
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Printedonacid-freepaper
SpringerispartofSpringerScience+BusinessMedia(www.springer.com)
Earlier Volumes in this Series
EducationalResearch:Why‘WhatWorks’Doesn’tWork
PaulSmeyersandMarcDepaepe
2006,VI,195p.,Hardcover
ISBN978-1-4020-5307-8
EducationalResearch:NetworksandTechnologies
PaulSmeyersandMarcDepaepe
2007,VI,228p.,Hardcover
ISBN978-1-4020-6612-2
EducationalResearch:theEducationalizationofSocialProblems
PaulSmeyersandMarcDepaepe
2008,VI,247p.,Hardcover
ISBN978-1-4020-9722-5
EducationalResearch:Proofs,Arguments,andOtherReasonings
PaulSmeyersandMarcDepaepe
2009,VI,199p.,Hardcove
ISBN978-90-481-3248-5
Contents
1 RepresentationorHardEvidence?TheUseofStatistics
inEducationandEducationalResearch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
PaulSmeyersandMarcDepaepe
2 TheLureofStatisticsforEducationalResearchers . . . . . . . . . 13
DavidF.Labaree
3 Dazzling Statistics? On the University Expansion
inFlandersandtheNeedforResearchintotheHistory
ofEducationthatTranscendsQuantifyingSociology . . . . . . . . 27
MarcDepaepe
4 ChildMaltreatmentintheLast50Years:TheUseofStatistics. . . 43
JeroenJ.H.Dekker
5 Constructing Social Unity and Presenting Clear
Predictions: The Promise of Public Opinion Pollsters
toMeasureandEducateSociety. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
NorbertGrube
6 n = 1: The Science and Art of the Single Case
inEducationalResearch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
DavidBridges
7 To Frame the Unframable: Quantifying Irregular
Migrants’Presence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
EliasHemelsoet
8 EuropeanCitizenshipandEvidence-BasedHappiness . . . . . . . 115
NaomiHodgson
9 The Persuasive Power of Figures and the Aesthetics
oftheDirtyBackyardsofStatisticsinEducationalResearch . . . . 129
UlrikeStadler-AltmannandEdwinKeiner
vii
viii Contents
10 TheGood,theBeautifulandtheLiterate:MakingStatistics
AccessibleforAction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
JeanPaulVanBendegem,KarenFrançois,
andKathleenCoessens
11 Statistics and the Inference to the Best Explanation:
LivingWithoutComplexity? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
PaulSmeyers
12 Performativity,StatisticsandBloodyWords . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
IanMunday
13 ABubble for theSpirit Level: Metricophilia, Rhetoric
andPhilosophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
RichardSmith
14 CallingtoAccount . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
PaulStandish
AbouttheAuthors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
AuthorIndex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
SubjectIndex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
Description:Statistics are everywhere. Their power and their undoubted efficacy in many areas have given rise to faith in measurement and metrics. More of them will tell us all that we need to know. Their use carries with it a number of presuppositions: that reality can be satisfactorily represented and that it
