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Book part
Publication date: 29 November 2014

Maggie Renken, Carmen Carrion and Ellen Litkowski

Prior research has shown the effectiveness of inquiry education in increasing content knowledge and motivation. Improving learners’ epistemologies is an additional component that…

Abstract

Prior research has shown the effectiveness of inquiry education in increasing content knowledge and motivation. Improving learners’ epistemologies is an additional component that should be examined when considering inquiry effectiveness. The basis for students’ participation in inquiry-based science education (IBSE) is to emulate the scientific process in classroom learning – and, by extension, to alter their scientific epistemologies. In this chapter, we discuss the challenges associated with the construction and assessment of IBSE. First, despite it being a common underlying theoretical framework of inquiry units, assessments of learning outcomes rarely reflect a consideration of students’ changing epistemologies. Second, we examine whether inquiry practices in the classroom are constructed to alter students’ epistemologies. We integrate preliminary research findings from a week-long, researcher-taught ecology inquiry unit with urban adolescents, reporting on posttest assessments of students’ thoughts on sources of knowledge, their ecology content knowledge, and their understanding of the nature of science. While we expected this unit to foster learner epistemology, our results did not confirm our expectations. In fact, students who participated in the inquiry unit were outperformed by a comparison group matched on age and ethnicity in several unexpected areas relevant to learner epistemology. This chapter explores explanations of unexpected findings and recommendations for the future assessment and practice of inquiry couched in challenges associated with current challenges to instructing and assessing learner epistemology.

Details

Inquiry-based Learning for Faculty and Institutional Development: A Conceptual and Practical Resource for Educators
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78441-235-7

Article
Publication date: 27 November 2017

Stanislas Bigirimana

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a dynamic and integrative epistemology as a substitute to normative epistemology.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a dynamic and integrative epistemology as a substitute to normative epistemology.

Design/methodology/approach

A philosophical argument based on the critique of literature.

Findings

Normative epistemology implies that knowing leads to certainty, and it has to be objective and universal because it is an accurate representation of reality. Dynamic and integrative epistemology uphold that knowing leads to accumulating insights though information processing. Knowing is a unified but fourfold process of experiencing, understanding, judging and acting (Lonergan, 1990). It occurs at four levels of consciousness: the empirical, the intellectual, the evaluative and the pragmatic (Lonergan, 1990). Dynamic and integrative epistemology extends rationality, knowledge and intelligence to non-humans because institutions have substantive, structural, behavior and teleological dimensions and processes that enable them to process information, i.e. to know.

Research limitations/implications

Translating a conceptual paper into practical action, organizational structuring or product design can be difficult.

Practical implications

Extending the concept of rationality to non-humans implies realizing that human abilities are limited and need to be augmented by proper institutional design and artificial tools.

Social implications

The design of intelligent organizations, societies and artificial tools.

Originality value

Normative epistemology which considers reason and faith, empirical (experience) and rational (understanding), positive (facts) and ideal (principles, representations or wishes), physical (objects) and “mental” (ideas or concepts), practice and theory, knowledge (episteme) and opinion (doxa), reflection and action as opposed and mutually exclusive can be replaced by a dynamic and integrative epistemology which puts emotional, intellectual, evaluative and pragmatic dimensions of human knowing in an order of succession through a unified but yet differentiated process which can be augmented by non-human “experts”.

Article
Publication date: 9 December 2021

Lin Wang and Junping Qiu

The conditions that domain analysis becomes an academic school of information science (IS) are mature. Domain analysis is one of the most important foundations of IS. The purpose…

Abstract

Purpose

The conditions that domain analysis becomes an academic school of information science (IS) are mature. Domain analysis is one of the most important foundations of IS. The purpose of this paper is to analyze and discuss metatheoretical and theoretical issues in the domain analytic paradigm in IS.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper conducts a systematic review of representative publications of domain analysis. The analysis considered degree theses, journal articles, book chapters, conference papers and other materials.

Findings

Domain analysis maintains that community is the new focus of IS research. Although domain analysis centers on the domain and community, theoretical concerns on the social and individual dimensions of IS are inherent in it by its using sociology as its important approach and socio-cognitive viewpoint. For these reasons domain analysis can integrate social–community–individual levels of IS discipline as a whole. The role of subject knowledge in IS is discussed from the perspective of domain analysis. Realistic pragmatism that forms the philosophical foundation of domain analysis is argued and the implications of these theories to IS are presented.

Originality/value

The intellectual evolving landscape of domain analysis during a quarter century is comprehensively reviewed. Over the past twenty-five years, domain analysis has established its academic status in the international IS circle. Being an important metatheory, paradigm and methodology, domain analysis becomes the theoretical foundation of IS research. This paper assesses the current state of domain analysis and shows the contributions of domain analysis to IS. It also aims to inspire further exploration.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 78 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 July 1997

Masudul Alam Choudhury

Studies Ghazzali’s and Kant’s metaphysical epistemologies in comparative perspectives to bring out their consequences on the central issue of unification of knowledge. Addresses…

1084

Abstract

Studies Ghazzali’s and Kant’s metaphysical epistemologies in comparative perspectives to bring out their consequences on the central issue of unification of knowledge. Addresses the problem posed by either of these epistemologies towards unifying knowledge. Shows the central issue of reality as a universal is to be premissed in unification, which is in turn explained to be the direct function of interaction and creative evolution from lower to higher levels of certainty. Shows the unification epistemology to be uniquely premissed in the Qur’anic roots of Oneness of God. Explains this concept substantively in analytical terms. Thus the concept of unification of knowledge means the circular continuity by evolution of the interactions and integration that occur by linkages between the purely a priori and the purely a posteriori domains. This is also meant to convey the phenomenon of epistemic‐ontic continuity of the process towards comprehension and the resulting materiality of forms that subsequently reinforce newer levels of comprehensions. Unification takes place in the plane of such interlinkages, complementarity and convergence or integration. Invokes the problem of unification of knowledge in the contrasting modes of all the three cases, namely Ghazzali, Kant and the unification epistemology, to address the issues of moral market transformation taken up in the midst of human sustainability. Discusses some contemporary issues relating to globalization, economic interlinkages and evolution for world development, in light of the topic of moral market transformation and sustainability. Studies both of these analytically in the unification epistemology paradigm in contrast to the consequences implicative of Ghazzali’s and Kant’s epistemologies.

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 24 no. 7/8/9
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 13 March 2017

John Buschman

The purpose of this paper is to explore an approach to epistemology which allows a portion of library and information science (LIS) to coherently explain its social and…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore an approach to epistemology which allows a portion of library and information science (LIS) to coherently explain its social and intellectual contributions, and to overcome some of the problems of epistemology that LIS encounters.

Design/methodology/approach

Literature based conceptual analysis of the problems of epistemology in LIS and the productive approach of Deweyan Pragmatism.

Findings

LIS’ problems with epistemology come from a variety of sources: epistemology itself, the combining of librarianship with information science, and the search for a common grounding of the information professions, their tools and their institutions. No such theoretical foundation is possible, but Deweyan Pragmatism offers a sensible, practical explanation for the historical development and practices of librarianship.

Originality/value

Pragmatism has been deployed in portions of LIS, but the full implications and the “fit” of Dewey’s ideas for librarianship and its epistemology are productive explorations.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 73 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 31 December 2003

William McKinley

During the last 10 years, there have been several calls for a postmodern epistemology in organization studies (e.g. Hassard, 1994; Kilduff & Mehra, 1997). While most organization…

Abstract

During the last 10 years, there have been several calls for a postmodern epistemology in organization studies (e.g. Hassard, 1994; Kilduff & Mehra, 1997). While most organization studies researchers would probably not think of themselves as postmodernists, one response to these calls is that the callers are preaching to the already converted. That is, the implicit norms that govern what are considered desirable scholarly contributions in organization studies today already bear the stamp of a postmodern epistemology. It is an epistemology that has not been consciously adopted by most organization studies scholars, but nevertheless has left its imprint on their work. The purpose of this chapter is to develop that argument, focusing first on three scholarly norms that are prominent in contemporary organization studies. These three scholarly norms are: (1) the positive valuation of the attribute “insight”; (2) the use and positive valuation of broad-scope theoretical constructs; and (3) the positive valuation of multiple schools of thought. I will discuss each of these norms in turn and argue that each is consistent with, and supported by, underlying currents of thought in postmodernist epistemology. I will identify the elements of postmodernist epistemology that I believe support each norm and then critically appraise the norm in light of reservations I have about postmodernist thought. While the three norms identified above certainly do not cover the entire range of scholarly “best practices” in organization studies today, I believe they are sufficient to illustrate the link between everyday scholarly practice in the discipline and postmodernist views of knowledge.

Details

Post Modernism and Management
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84950-573-4

Book part
Publication date: 15 September 2017

Thomas A. Stapleford

The history of economics has often been described as the “history of economic thought.” In this essay, I explore an alternative perspective that builds on the French tradition of…

Abstract

The history of economics has often been described as the “history of economic thought.” In this essay, I explore an alternative perspective that builds on the French tradition of historical epistemology and treats economics as a social practice. I argue that a practice-based view provides a more philosophically robust conception of historiography and a richer field of investigation for historians of economics.

Details

Including a Symposium on the Historical Epistemology of Economics
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78714-537-5

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 August 2003

Karina Skovvang Christensen and Heine Kaasgaard Bang

Knowledge management is seen as a metaphorical perspective on management where the managerial focus depends on the epistemological standpoint taken. An identification of three…

3845

Abstract

Knowledge management is seen as a metaphorical perspective on management where the managerial focus depends on the epistemological standpoint taken. An identification of three epistemological perspectives accommodates the main body of literature on knowledge management: an artifact oriented epistemology that focuses on explicit knowledge, a process oriented epistemology focusing on both tacit and explicit knowledge and the interaction of these types of knowledge and an autopoietic epistemology where knowledge basically always has a tacit dimension. Based on a study of knowledge management in the Danish company Crisplant, the paper shows how the three epistemologies bring different aspects of managerial practice forward. By comparing the characteristics of knowledge, the nature of knowledge management activities, how knowledge is created and shared it is concluded that awareness of the implications of epistemological perspectives could enhance managerial analysis and conduct with respect to the management of knowledge as well as enrich research in the area.

Details

Journal of Knowledge Management, vol. 7 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1367-3270

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 2 December 2019

Philip Baron

There is a lack of epistemological considerations in religious studies methodologies, which have resulted in an on-going critique in this field. In addressing this critique, the…

Abstract

Purpose

There is a lack of epistemological considerations in religious studies methodologies, which have resulted in an on-going critique in this field. In addressing this critique, the researcher’s observer effect needs to be actively accounted for owing to the influence of the researcher’s epistemology in the author’s research. This paper aims to answer the question of why a researcher should address one’s epistemology in the research.

Design/methodology/approach

Using second-order cybernetics as an approach, observer dependence is exemplified and justified in the context of religious studies research methodology. The research activity is shown as a relational temporal coupling that introduces inter-subjective aspects to the research. The research process is analysed showing the need to provide scope for the researcher’s epistemology in one’s research.

Findings

A relational observer-dependent approach to research embraces the epistemology of the researcher and the participants providing equality in the relationship. The research results are thus framed according to the nature of the relationship and are thus not detached. This addresses social justice and reduces troubling truth claims.

Research limitations/implications

This first paper focuses on the question of why epistemology should be included in scholarly research. A detailed framework for how scholars may achieve this goal is to be part of the future study and is not presented in this paper.

Practical implications

In many positivist approaches there is a motivation to hide the researcher; however, recently there has been a move towards including authors in the first person, realising that science is tied to politics, which does not reach its ideals of objectivity. Cybernetics is presented as an approach to addressing the move from “objective” to “subjective” research.

Social implications

Researchers cannot get into the minds of their participants and thus an authorial privileged presentation by the researcher of the participant’s experiences is fraught with epistemological weaknesses. Attempting to own one’s own epistemology could address social justice in research by personalising the research and accounting for the observer effect and the inter-subjective attributes of the research relationship.

Originality/value

The principle of observer dependence in cybernetics is not new; however, a research approach that focuses on the nature of knowing and how this may influence one’s research in religious studies is uncommon. It is thus presented here as a viable option to address the critique of epistemologically weak research methodology in religious studies.

Article
Publication date: 29 July 2014

Cecilia Anna Cederlund

– This article aims to identify methodological openings and barriers for using managerial relevance as a method to further business to business (B2B) marketing theory.

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Abstract

Purpose

This article aims to identify methodological openings and barriers for using managerial relevance as a method to further business to business (B2B) marketing theory.

Design/methodology/approach

There is currently an imbalance between two research modes; notably, the normative knowledge accumulation mode confers scant space to the solution mode. This negatively affects both the production of managerially relevant research and theoretical developments within B2B marketing which, in turn, hinders the development of marketing as an applied science. Against the background of an upgraded methodological cartography, emphasizing the equal importance of the two research modes, this article illustrates the context of using managerial relevance as a method to forward B2B marketing theory. An aggregate picture of corresponding calls in the literature shows why this is important.

Findings

Calls for increased managerial relevance and methodological diversity outside the normative knowledge accumulation mode will face difficulties in terms of changing researcher behavior, as long as the biased relationship between the two research modes persists. For managerially relevant research to increase, and for B2B marketing science to progress, underlying assumptions of different methodological stances have to be uncovered, calling for increased methodological clarity.

Research implications

To prevent a relapse, the analysis suggests a further strategy by which to modify schematic models to study organizational change and behavior.

Practical implications

A more significant role attributed to managerial relevance for theory development early in the research process, permits to align the perspectives of research with the needs of practice and will decrease the research–practice gap.

Originality/value

The article pinpoints two research modes and three epistemological stances – predict, describe and depict – which sharpens methodological clarity beyond traditional qualitative–quantitative, and conceptual–empirical classifications.

Details

Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, vol. 29 no. 7/8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0885-8624

Keywords

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