Table Of ContentSpringerBriefs in Education
Niklas Pramling
Methodology for Early
Childhood Education
and Care Research
Premises and Principles
of Scientific Knowledge
Building
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Niklas Pramling
Methodology for Early
Childhood Education
and Care Research
Premises and Principles of Scientific
Knowledge Building
Niklas Pramling
Department of Education
Communication and Learning
University of Gothenburg
Gothenburg, Sweden
ISSN 2211-1921 ISSN 2211-193X (electronic)
SpringerBriefs in Education
ISBN 978-3-031-24173-4 ISBN 978-3-031-24174-1 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-24174-1
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023
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This book is dedicated to Aino-Maja: May
you continue asking, “How do you know
that?”
Preface
This is a book about the distinguishing features of scientific knowledge and research
and is intended to introduce and further the professional development of Ph.D.
students, with a particular focus on conducting research in and on early childhood
education and care. Much of what the book covers concerns fundamental matters of
knowledge building. These matters tend to be taken for granted and therefore remain
implicit, which constitutes a hindrance to students in the process of appropriating
this professional knowledge. There is therefore great value, I premise, in trying to
also explicate these matters of research as they are generative of how research, more
concretely, is carried out, criticized, and valued. Many of the features discussed here
are seldom discussed in theoretical literature, while others are frequently covered.
However, it is valuable to see how the different issues and parts of research are
inherently related to each other. This relationship-building work, so to speak, is an
important ambition of this book. The content of this book is the insights I have appro-
priated through my own education (including my Ph.D. studies), as the director of and
the supervisor at three national (Swedish) research schools, from my individual and
collaborative work, and from readings in fields within as well as outside my prime
areas of work. I have had the good fortune of having great teachers and supervisors
throughout my education (studying cultural studies, literature history, psychology,
and finally educational research), who have formed my understanding a great deal
about the matters covered here. I wish to extend my gratitude to Lea Eldstål-Ahrens
and Sofije Shengjergji for assisting with German and Greek, respectively, and to
Louise Peterson, for generously and insightfully commenting on an earlier draft of
this text. I would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their suggestions for
developing the text. Finally, my gratitude goes out to my editor at Springer, Astrid
Noordermeer, who has overseen the work in an excellent manner, as always. Need-
less to say, any faults in the present elaboration are entirely my own. Here, in passing,
it may be noted that in scientific literature we need to say what is “needless to say”,
which testifies to the foundational and prevalent feature of this form of knowledge
in placing great value on explication, something that I will return to throughout this
book. Learning to become a researcher does not simply mean learning to conduct
research, in the sense of knowing how to carry out an empirical study; it also entails
vii
viii Preface
appropriating important practices for how to engage in informed dialogue, critique,
and reasoning. With this book, I mean to introduce—and contribute to further devel-
oping the reader’s ability to develop their participation in—these latter kinds of
practices.
Gothenburg, Sweden Niklas Pramling
November 2022
Contents
1 Introduction .................................................... 1
1.1 Guidance for Readers ........................................ 3
References ...................................................... 4
2 Scientific Knowledge ............................................ 5
2.1 The Characteristic Features of Scientific Knowledge .............. 6
2.2 Organizing for Collective Knowledge Building .................. 9
2.3 A Disclaimer and Justifications ................................ 10
References ...................................................... 11
3 The Importance and Functions of Theory ......................... 13
3.1 Triangulation ............................................... 18
3.2 Unit of Analysis and the Problem with Mixing Theories ........... 19
3.3 Theory and Research Questions ............................... 21
3.4 Process Versus Product Studies ................................ 23
3.5 The Contextual Nature of Studying Individuals’ Knowing
or Abilities ................................................. 25
3.6 Communicative Framing ..................................... 27
3.7 A Few Words on Ontology and Epistemology and the
Constitutive Nature of Language Practices ...................... 28
3.8 Concluding Words ........................................... 30
References ...................................................... 31
4 Quality Criteria ................................................. 35
4.1 Science as an Argumentative Set of Practices .................... 39
4.2 Inductive, Deductive, and Abductive Research ................... 39
4.2.1 Points on a Continuum Rather than a Dichotomy .......... 40
4.3 Generalization .............................................. 41
4.3.1 Conceptual Generalization ............................. 41
4.4 Transcribing and Representing Empirical Data ................... 43
4.4.1 Transparency ......................................... 44
4.5 Findings Versus Results ...................................... 46
ix
x Contents
4.6 Summary ................................................... 49
References ...................................................... 50
5 Some Notes on Normativity and Research ......................... 53
5.1 A Philosophical Investigation of Norms ......................... 54
5.1.1 Norms for Research ................................... 55
5.1.2 Norms in Research and Norms in Drawing Conclusions
from Research ........................................ 55
5.1.3 Norms in the Semiotic Means of Research ................ 56
5.2 The Politics of Representation ................................. 57
5.3 Summary and Conclusions .................................... 59
5.3.1 Bad Research Is Unethical .............................. 61
References ...................................................... 62
6 Scientific Language Practices ..................................... 65
6.1 Being Linguistically Responsive to the Dynamic Nature
of the Phenomena and Processes of Educational Research ......... 65
6.2 Metaphors for Talking About the Empirical Basis of Research ..... 68
6.3 Some Final Words on the Importance of Being Attentive
to Terminology .............................................. 68
References ...................................................... 69
7 Coda: Summary and the Importance of Being Mindful
of Pareidolia .................................................... 71
7.1 Pareidolia and Conclusions ................................... 72
References ...................................................... 75
