Read on Twitter
A few thoughts on politics and research:
There's little point doing research if you've decided your conclusions before the work commences. That's partly why we have protocols for systematic reviews, quant analysis etc. - to distance our politics from our method/findings. (1/5) https://twitter.com/joenutt_author/status/1348224679719403521
There's little point doing research if you've decided your conclusions before the work commences. That's partly why we have protocols for systematic reviews, quant analysis etc. - to distance our politics from our method/findings. (1/5) https://twitter.com/joenutt_author/status/1348224679719403521
On the other hand, values are an inevitable part of research. When you decide to look at the 'disadvantage gap' or evaluate a programme based on changes to academic outcomes, you are asserting that these things are important. (2/5)
Ed research only really matters if you can get policymakers, practitioners and others to buy into the idea that what you are doing will improve society in some incremental way. These are value-judgements that are never entirely neutral or apolitical. (3/5)
Quality research is an essential part of the ed system. It has helped vaccinate many against learning styles and other ed-myths and with billions being thrown at education, it is vital that policymakers can make use of high-quality, high-level summaries to inform decisions. (4/5)
However, at some point in the process, values will come into the picture. Better to acknowledge this than pretend otherwise. This is where the often cited Keynes quote comes in: that those claiming their convictions are value-free are often slaves to defunct economists (5/5)
