Paradigms in Educational Science: Different Meanings and Purpose to Theory

Abstract

The intent of this essay is to initiate a dialogue that reconsiders the possibilities of educational inquiry as a source of human understanding. Education science is defined as a particular occupational community. It contains different and competing assumptions, commitments and social values which are often mystified by the rituals and ceremonies of scientific discourse. Three different intellectual traditions or paradigms can be identified in studies of schooling. These are: 1. empirical–analytic; 2. symbolic or linguistic inquiry; and 3. critical science. In considering these three traditions, different purposes and characteristics of knowledge emerge, each of which contains particular visions of social affairs, principles of authority and definitions of legitimacy.