Purpose: The growing public interest in vocational education and training (VET), most recently since the economic crisis of 2007/2008, has led to an exponential increase in articles with a vocational focus, underscoring the need for review studies for the purposes of systematic knowledge aggregation, clarification and interpretation. We assume…

Educational research developed initially using the natural science model based on the positivist tradition. Education was then seen as an application of the positivist science thus produced. This research could predict some effects but not explain the processes through which these effects came about. This exclusively numerical representation of…

Suggests that minority groups research concentrate on the search for constraints and variables that meet the following criteria: (1) they should be characteristic potentials of humanity and human society; (2) they should have functional significance for individual, as well as social system psychology; and (3) they should be capable of being…

This paper explores the ethics of educational connoisseurship and educational criticism. Three ethical criteria commonly used in social research--informed consent, avoidance of harm to participants, and confidentiality--are identified and applied to a particular case of educational criticism in a study conducted on teacher coping strategies. The…

Theoretical and methodological aspects of competition research are discussed, with special regard for evaluative criteria, major approaches, experimentation, and measurement. (DS)

Points out essential problems and concerns which guide basic contemporary research on the state and society. Suggests that research should concentrate on five or six broad fields, including the theory of the state, connections between economic/social and political spheres, political-social consensus, and class relations. Research methodology is…

Considers how the changed ecological conditions confronting human societies challenge sociology. Concludes that sociology stands in need of a fundamental alteration in its disciplinary paradigm. Suggests a 'New Ecological Paradigm' which may better serve the field of sociology in light of the current recognition of ecological realities. (Author/DB)

A substantial number of published articles in speech communication research today is experimental/social scientific in nature. It is only in the past decade that scholars have begun to put the history of communication under the lens. Early advocates of the adoption of the method of social scientific inquiry were J. A. Winans, J. M. O'Neill, and C.…

Defines and explains organizational and conceptual problems encountered by practitioners of academic history today. An argument is presented for more systematic and self-conscious links between academic history and other academic disciplines that use historical data extensively. (Author/DB)

Traces the shift of paradigms in the political science profession from the 1960s to 1980, examines the classical paradigm, compares it with modern paradigms, and reviews contemporary efforts to articulate a new paradigm which takes the ecological crisis into account. (Author/DB)

Reviews various social science models of man designed to explain the issue of limits to growth for human societies. Presents arguments often advanced by proponents of pessimistic and optimistic schools of thought regarding whether society will be successfully able to deal with the limits to growth controversy. (Author/DB)

Argues that the two most common interpretations of the Meadian "I" in George Herbert Mead's theory of social self have failed to place the concept within the context of Mead's philosophy of social behaviorism. Stresses also that Mead's theory of social behaviorist interpretation is applicable to sociological inquiry when it is properly…

This paper identifies major theories prevalent in recent feminist scholarship, discusses biases inherent in these theories, and offers an original theoretical explanation for women's social and economic status. The major objective is to contribute to the body of feminist thought by exposing the biased conceptual tools used by many researchers to…

Methodological incarceration occurs when research and investigation are restricted by the traditional concepts of how a study should be designed and are hampered by those notions which dictate what research is. This paper examines several reasons why social science research in general--reading research in particular--is considered by some to be…

Naturalist and interpretive accounts of educational research lack an adequate philosophical account of its nature. Educational research is both interpretive and scientific. Only by repudiating divisions and distinctions that separate the research community from the educational community can research which is both educational and scientific by…