Meeting abstract
PERSONAL NARRATIVES AND IMPLICIT THEORIES IN QUALITATIVE ANDRAGOGICAL RESEARCH
Amina Isanović
orcid.org/0000-0003-2751-7010
; Filozofski fakultet, Univerzitet u Sarajevu, Bosna i Hercegovina
Abstract
The paper treats methodological issues of contemporary andragogical research. At the beginning, epistemological issues of qualitative methodology are elaborated. They are positioned at the very core of the contemporary discussion on the research praxis in social and human sciences. Further on, the attitude about compatibility of qualitative methodology with the postmodern idea of fragmented reality is elaborated. That idea is related to the focus of scientific knowledge on the quest for individual truths, which are found in an authentic personal history/story. By virtue of this, in qualitative research projects, personal narratives are treated as research material. Reliance on this type of material leads to emergence of narrative knowledge (as opposed to paradigmatic, general). Life experience obtains the status of source of knowledge that abounds in specific kind of information – which is in qualitative methodology called implicit theories. This provides requirement for structuring life experience in a scientific discourse. On this basis, qualitative research contributes to grounding new fields of scholarship. The central part of the paper offers analysis of the role of personal narratives and implicit theories in framing the epistemology of Educational Management, an area which is yet to answer to the fundamental questions related to its scientific identity. Therefore, it relies on several “stronger” fields, including Andragogy. Using the results of qualitative research conducted with the principals of educational institutions, potentials of qualitative andragogical research to generate knowledge are analysed and elaborated.
Keywords
Andragogical research; qualitative methodology; personal narratives; implicit theories; educational management
Hrčak ID:
104261
URI
Publication date:
12.12.2011.
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