The Taxonomy of Scott and Educational Research in Iran: a Methodological Evaluation

پژوهش نامه مبانی تعلیم و تربیت

Article 3, Volume 1, Issue 1, September 2011   

Document Type: پژوهشی

DOI: 10.22067/fe.v1i1.9382

Authors

Bakhtiar Shabani Varaki^* ; hosein Baghgoli; rezvan Hoseingholizadeh; marzieh Ali; Ali Khaleghkhah

Abstract

This essay evaluates the major methodological trends in research at the Iranian academic educational journals based on Scott’s methodological criticism. Therefore, the present study sought to examine a small part of Iranian educational research in the context of Scott's taxonomy, including nine major fallacies: epistemic, homogeneity, causal, essentialist, value free knowledge, prospective, reductive, deterministic, and pragmatism. Of 158 articles, published in nine leading educational journals in Iran during March 2002 and March 2007, 96 percent used quantitative methods, one used qualitative method, and 4 percent used a mixed method. Our analyses suggest that most of the methodological fallacies were observable in all the published work. This is in contrast with Scott's point of view. He argued that the nine methodological fallacies merely apply to quantitative research. Given the importance of our findings, the preliminary conclusion is the need to develop an alternative approach to more effectively prevent the emergence of methodological fallacies in educational research.


Keywords: methodological fallacy, Taxonomy of Scott, educational research, transcendental realism