Table Of ContentPragmatism and Educational Research
Philosophy, Theory, and Educational Research
Nicholas C. Burbules, Series Editor
Books forthcoming in this series:
Cognitivism and Educational Research
by Ralph E. Reynolds and Nicholas C. Burbules
Poststructuralism and Educational Research
by Michael Peters and Nicholas C. Burbules
Feminism and Educational Research
by Wendy R. Kohli and Nicholas C. Burbules
Pragmatism and Educational Research
By Gert J. J. Biesta and
Nicholas C. Burbules
ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC.
Lanham Boulder New York Toronto Oxford
ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC.
Published in the United States of America
by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, MD 20706
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Copyright 0 2003 by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-PublicationD ata
Biesta, Gert.
Pragmatism and educational research I by Gert J.J. Biesta and Nicholas
C. Burbules.
p. cm. - (Philosophy, theory, and educational research)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8476-9476-3 (cloth : alk. paper) - ISBN 0-8476-9477- 1 (pbk: :
alk. paper)
I. Education-Philosophy. 2. Pragmatism. 3. Dewey, John, 1859-1952-
Contributions in education. 4. Education-Research -Methodology.
I. Burbules, Nicholas C. 11. Title. Ill. Series
LB14.7.B53 2003
370l.1 -dc21
20030 1 1857
Printed in the United States of America
eTM
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American
National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, ANSI/NISO 239.48-1 992.
Contents
vii
Series Preface
1 What Is Pragmatism? 1
25
2 From Experience to Knowledge
3 The Process of Inquiry 55
4 Consequences of Pragmatism 83
5 Pragmatism and Educational Research 107
Bibliography 115
Index 121
About the Authors 127
V
This Page Intentionally Left Blank
Series Preface
This book with Gert Biesta is the second in a series appearing with Row-
man & Littlefield Publishers: “Philosophy, Theory, and Educational Re-
search.” Contemporary educational research has been experiencing an ex-
plosion of new methodologies and approaches to inquiry. Many of these
approaches have drawn from philosophical or theoretical positions that
underlie their determinations of research methods, aims, and criteria of
validity. Yet the substance of these philosophical or theoretical assump-
tions is not always made clear to the reader, and so it is difficult for one
to judge those assumptions for oneself.
This series is designed to explore some of the dominant philosophical
and theoretical positions influencing educational research today, in a man-
ner that does justice to the substance of these views and shows their rele-
vance for research aims and practices. Each volume will show how a par-
ticular set of philosophical and theoretical positions affects the methods
and aims of educational research and each will discuss specific examples
of research that show these orientations at work. The emphasis is on
lively, accessible, but theoretically sound explorations of the issues. These
books are intended to be of interest not only to educational researchers but
to anyone in education wanting to understand what these various “isms”
are about.
This series features a distinguished international group of scholars. It is
important for the reader to know that the first author of each volume has
been primarily responsible for conceptualizing and drafting the text. The
series editor has played a very active role in selecting the topics and the
vii
...
Vlll Series Preface
organization for each volume, has interacted regularly with the first author
as the text has been drafted, and has had a relatively free hand in revising
the text and adding or suggesting new material. This is a more involved
role than editors normally play, so second authorship seemed the appro-
priate appellation. However, the predominant voice and point of view for
each volume in the series belongs to the first author. It could not be oth-
erwise, since no coauthor could equally advocate all the positions, many
of them mutually inconsistent, argued in these volumes.
1
Ulhat Pragmatism?
Is
No conclusion of scientific research can be converted into an immedi-
ate rule of educational art.
-John Dewey ( 1929b, 9)
It is widely expected that educational research should generate knowl-
edge that is relevant for the day-to-day practice of educators. Educators do
not simply want to know how the world “out there” is. They want knowl-
edge that can inform their actions and activities. The same is true for ed-
ucational policymakers and politicians. They also seek knowledge that
can support and guide their decision making. Educational research, one
might say, is not so much research about education as it is research for ed-
ucation.
,The idea that educational research should be relevant for educational
practice is far from new. Ever since the end of the eighteenth century,
when education became the object of systematic scientific inquiry, educa-
tionists have stressed the practical orientation and significance of educa-
tional research. This was a central concern for authors like Johann Hein-
rich Pestalozzi, Johann Friedrich Herbart, and Friedrich Schleiermacher,
the founding fathers of modern educational theory. It has become even
more important today, at a time when educational researchers are contin-
uously confronted with questions about the practical meaning and rele-
vance of their work.
Although there is almost unanimous agreement about the idea that ed-
ucational research should have a practical orientation, there are many
