BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk// X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Interpretative research in education: an invitation to an open dis cussion - Professors Paul Smeyers (KU Leuven and University of Ghent) \, N ick Burbules (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaigne \, Morwenna Griffit hs (University of Edinburgh) \, and David Bridges (University of Cambridge Faculty of Education) DTSTART:20100603T160000Z DTEND:20100603T173000Z UID:TALK24635@talks.cam.ac.uk CONTACT:Ewa Illakowicz DESCRIPTION:University of Cambridge Faculty of Education\nin association w ith the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain\n\nProfessors Pau l Smeyers (KU Leuven and University of Ghent) \, Nick Burbules (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaigne \, Morwenna Griffiths (University of Edinbu rgh) \, and David Bridges (University of Cambridge Faculty of Education) a re meeting in Cambridge to plan a major new international handbook on Int erpretative Research in Education (running to over 600\,000 words) -- and would welcome the opportunity to engage staff and students in the Faculty of Education and elsewhere on the issues which such a handbook will need t o address and in exploring examples of research in this tradition which ha ve contributed to educational practice and policy.\n\nThere is a sense in which all research might be held to be interpretative\, in so far as all data requires interpretation\, but the term is usually applied to research which is perceived as explicitly anti-positivist or where the researcher ’s interpretation of events can only be checked or challenged by referen ce to data which itself consists of interpretations of events. The histori an or biographer\, for example\, writes on the basis of secondary sources (ie other people’s interpretations of events) and primary sources – le tters\, diaries\, newspaper reports\, official documents – which are the mselves mediations of what happened by other people. Arguably there is no escape from this sort of mediation or interpretation.\n\nContemporary edu cational research draws extensively on enquiry in this interpretative trad ition drawn from many parts of the academy\, but especially from the human ities and the qualitative end of the social sciences. This includes\, for example\, auto/biography\, phenomenography\, ethnography\, discourse analy sis and history\, as well as the strong interpretative framing provided e. g. by critical theory\, psychoanalysis\, feminism and post colonial resear ch. The convenors of this seminar (and editors of the international handbo ok) will be inviting contributions from all of these forms of enquiry whic h illustrate the ways in which they can contribute effectively to educatio nal understanding.\n\nOf course the brief introduction provided above itse lf raises more questions than it answers. How is ‘interpretative researc h’ best defined or understood? Does an attachment to interpretative res earch necessarily lead one into social relativism or subjectivism? Can in terpretative research also be critical? Will any interpretation do? Is the re a rigour to interpretative research? Is there anything beyond the inter pretation? Is it possible to tell it\, as the German historian Ranke put i t\, ‘wie es eigentlich gewesen’ – as it really was? What role is the re for such research in the world of ‘evidence based policy’?\n\nPaul Smeyers will introduce the seminar and then Nick Burbules will raise some issues about interpretation and understanding to be followed by short cont ributions from Morwenna Griffiths and David Bridges\, but there will be am ple time for contributions from what we hope will be the multi-disciplinar y perspectives of those attending. The presenters would be especially inte rested to hear from anyone who has an example of research of the kind indi cted here where the methods employed have proved effective in informing ed ucational practice or policy.\n LOCATION: Faculty of Education\, 184 Hills Road\, Cambridge\, CB2 8PQ\, 2S 4 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR