Post-Structural and Post-Colonial Developments in Education
A research is done in order to have a reliable preference for analysis of different issues and things. In conducting a research, much should be considered including the model or approach to be used. A discipline inquiry, comparative and international educational research involves different disciplines, including education that provides principles of research by which to collect and reason from data. Comparative and international education demands the selection of a particular set of measured observations of facts from infinite possibilities. Herein, the type of international research methodology is dependent on the generalization of the research findings, which can be classified as basic, applied, and evaluation research. Topics of basic comparative research in education include educational psychology, philosophy of education, sociology of education and educational economics. Its main purpose is to develop foundational theories about education and to add to the body of knowledge.
International research methodology in terms of comparative education differs from the basic type as it is more specific. Subjects regarding curriculum and instruction, special education, educational technology, and educational administration are the most common point of discussion for the applied type. It aims to develop theories for improving specific practices and add to the body of subject-specific knowledge and direct practices. The main goal of this paper is to evaluate one model of international research methodology that breaks with the scientific tradition. In this regard, post modernism approach to research will be discussed.
Contemporary, or Postmodern, society is characterized by a newfound ability to control the world of nature and of illusion. It immerses people in a virtual atmosphere of images and simulations, and encourages the acting out of desires, including desires that once seemed off-limits to action and experience. Ultimately, it seeks to turn reality into a simulation and make simulations seem real, so humanity will have the ability to control and create its surroundings at will. The society certainly has used its power to enormous good. Postmodern society turns out to be a realm in illusion, doing the unthinkable and continuous discovery of “what ifs”.
The idea of postmodernism poses a fundamental challenge to establish developments in the sector of education. Postmodern theory represents individuals adapted to the contemporary world as well as the environment suited to it. Exploring the nature and the overall image of education in the Postmodern society has to do with transition and changes (1996).
The term International education research can be seen as economic and cultural activities. Herein, the process as well as the results of research are utilized to reinforce educational practice and policy and this may have an influence on these aspects. It can be said that comparative and international research in education is carried out at a particular time and place depending on the aims and objectives. Recently international education is recognized as a social phenomenon with a variety of social-cultural impacts at both the individual level and the global level, and it is a pronounced and significant reality that all social sciences undertake. The study of education and its changes reflect the advent of new approaches and ways of thinking in modern society. The changes in education mirror the changes from modern society to postmodern society (2003). In order to do it, it is important to determine first who will be the participants of the research study. Data collection is also an important aspects in considering the use of postmodernist approach in comparative and international education. In line with the data analysis the comparative education research must also consider a clear discussion of the result of the study. The use of the most appropriate research method had been very helpful to achieve a good analysis must be noted. Furthermore, the presentation of the data should make the reader easily identify whether the research study had achieved the objective or purpose or not.
In contemporary education, we have seen a development from internationalized education to global education, and this trend marks the changes from modern to post-modern age. . The international educational research can further be categorized as either qualitative or quantitative in approach in a post-modernized approach. Basically, it deals with experimental study in which procedures are planned before the study begins. The researcher is usually detached from the study and the final output is context free. The post modernism approach to research, deals with understanding social situations from the participants’ perspectives. Sometimes it makes use of ethnographic study, and unlike the qualitative approach, its procedure is more flexible and the design emerges as the study progresses. The post modernist approach is also deeply contextualized and the researcher is deeply immersed in the study.
Perhaps, the biggest and most basic difference between these two approaches is the presentation of data as well as the information needed. Measurement, numerical data, and statistics are the main substance of a most of the international research models. These types call for an explicit description of data collection and analysis of procedures. An approach that is primarily deductive reasoning, it prefers the least complicated explanation and gives a statement of statistical probability. The quantitative research is more on the detailed description of a phenomenon. It basically gives a generalization of the gathered data with tentative synthesized interpretations.
In the postmodernist way of research, Some authors have discussed the topic on informed consent as the key issue in research with human beings. They discussed the traditional foundation of research ethics in Kantian philosophy, and also note recent challenges to that way of thinking from postmodern philosophy. Research codes of ethics put in place a certain universality, which compels every person to recognize universal rights for all persons as a constant norm. However, emerging post-modern ethical norms raise new problematic issues, going beyond traditional basic concepts of research ethics ( 2003) where empirical universality is assumed to be the one appropriate approach. Kantian moral philosophy, which guides much of the writing on research ethics, allows that individuals cannot be used as a means to an end but there must be respect of persons. Research conduct is judged by the extent to which it is aligned to moral agency recognizing the principle of respect of persons. It is not ethically permissible to violate participants’ self-purpose or self-determination. Codes of ethics are useful where there are conflicts to be faced, which need to be settled. This view allows the flexibility necessary to judge a particular research on its own merits, while at the same time paying attention to certain universal principles such as the respect of persons.
Critical postmodernism is a research perspective that integrates both critical theory and postmodern thinking (1991). If other aims for new knowledge and interpretive research describe present meanings and concepts, the focus of critical postmodernism is on the historical background or origin of concepts. Aside from identifying the historical emergence of these social structures, the critical postmodernism approach also identify how these concepts form contradictions and affect human freedom and social actions. This perspective takes the historical realist assumption, which stands on the belief that current reality has been influenced and developed by past social, economic and political practices or values (2004).
The researchers however pointed a number of factors that support the validity of the use of post modernist approach in comparative and international education. For instance, in their choice of subjects, they enumerated various reasons that will justify their participant choice. Another factor that the researchers used to stress research validity is their one year exposure to the subjects, which made the researchers familiar with the participants’ behavior.
The comparative international educational research, like any other researches, is not as simple as it may seem. Aside from the problem and objectives, a researcher has many other factors to consider before he arrives at a conclusion. The choice of a methodology is very important for the outcome of the study as its efficacy will be the basis of effective data gathering. The interview method is one of the most common forms of methodology used for comparative research. It may have its own set of weaknesses, however, it holds most of the key elements for successful data gathering, and that is trust and respect. As a researcher, one should keep in mind that without the participants of the study, there will be no data to be analyzed and no conclusion can be made. Hence, certain research ethics had to be kept in mind.
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