Philosophy is not enough: Inserting methodology and politics into the space between science and democracy

Abstract

Calls for the development of evidence-based policy and practice in education raise many questions about the nature of evidence and the relationship between research, policy, practice, and the democratic process. The logic of proponents seems to be that the best evidence of 'what works' needs to be produced by research, and in particular by large scale quantitative and experimental approaches to research which, the critics have claimed, are not widely undertaken by educational researchers. Having been produced, such evidence should then be translated into policy; and practice must follow policy, in a classic centre-periphery, Research, Development, Dissemination (RDD) model of social and institutional change. Such a model privileges research evidence over the democratic process. However philosophical critiques of the logic and implications of the evidence movement are insufficient. Educational researchers must draw attention to its weaknesses in methodology, and seek to address the democratic deficit by linking research methods to stakeholder engagement.