Pragmatism as the research design structure
Interesting to explore for what I’m planning Dewey’s pragmatism model:
Pragmatism as a research design (interpretivist and social construction of knowledge)
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/8/9/255/htm
http://www.sfu.ca/~rwakkary/thesis/Wakkary_Chapter_3.pdf
https://www.simplypsychology.org/John-Dewey.html
https://www.atlantis-press.com/article/125919033.pdf
Pragmatic inquiry research
https://orsociety.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1057/palgrave.jors.2602443
A pragmatic study focuses on an individual decision maker within an actual real-world situation. The process of undertaking a pragmatic study is first to identify a problem and view it within its broadest context. This leads to research inquiry, which seeks to better understand and ultimately solve the problem.
Essentially this is what I’m intending to do:
Real world situation:
Social model of disability is that the disability is created by society not by the disability. In a digital context the lack of accessible everyday content is creating the barriers.
Problem to fix:
As a society we are not educating people on everyday digital accessibility awareness to fix the issue of digital content. We have regulations for websites aimed at specific professionals and organisations but no wide-spread awareness in society and culture about the underpinning basics that everyone can adopt. It’s not covered in the education of our next generation of young people who are our future digital generation. We are therefore currently not able or not prepared as a society to prevent digital barriers because no basic education or awareness programs exist. There are some simple skills that could act as an underpinning knowledge base in schools to educate our next generation.
Research inquiry to understand and solve the problem:
What is the current awareness and knowledge in the school education system about digital accessibility?
#Part 1: Reflecting on the extent of the problem (interviews)
Measure extent of problem or gap in education/knowledge (relativistic ontology) - Last year primary/Last year secondary/Teachers
>What is their basic knowledge about disability (medial and social) (permanent, temporary and situational) and where does this knowledge come from (curriculum/personal/media)?
>What digital skills are they developing at certain levels of their educational journey? And where does this come from (curriculum/personal/media)?
#Part 2: Reflecting on suggested solutions (focus groups)
Explore options for a solution: (interpretive epistemology - construct solutions and meaning with participants)
What is the level of understanding against a basic set of awareness and skills resources for teaching and learning about digital accessibility? Phase 1 will indicate what is needed and the depth of resources explored.
Addressing the problem: What opportunities and challenges are in there for implementing basic understanding and awareness of digital accessibility in the curriculum? Primary/Secondary?
Cross-reference the two phases.
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Based on Dewey 5 step model diagram and aligned to flow chart for ontology and epistemology
https://i2insights.org/2017/05/02/philosophy-for-interdisciplinarity/
Copied from paper in relation to how I’m organising research. What is framing my research choices?
Part 1:
Ontologically, or the ‘study of being’, which is concerned with what actually exists in the world about which humans can acquire knowledge. Ontology helps researchers recognize how certain they can be about the nature and existence of objects they are researching.
Relativist ontology is based on the philosophy that reality is constructed within the human mind, such that no one ‘true’ reality exists. Instead, reality is ‘relative’ according to how individuals experience it at any given time and place.
Part 2:
Epistemology is concerned with all aspects of the validity, scope and methods of acquiring knowledge, such as a) what constitutes a knowledge claim; b) how can knowledge be acquired or produced; and c) how the extent of its transferability can be assessed. Epistemology is important because it influences how researchers frame their research in their attempts to discover knowledge.
Constructionist epistemology rejects the idea that objective ‘truth’ exists and is waiting to be discovered. Instead, ‘truth’, or meaning, arises in and out of our engagement with the realities in our world. That is, a ‘real world’ does not preexist independently of human activity or symbolic language. The value of constructionist research is in generating contextual understandings of a defined topic or problem.
Subjectivist epistemology relates to the idea that reality can be expressed in a range of symbol and language systems, and is stretched and shaped to fit the purposes of individuals such that people impose meaning on the world and interpret it in a way that makes sense to them.
Interesting - pragmatism and grounded theory: https://nsuworks.nova.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3993&context=tqr
Using GT to recognise possible actions that would address a problem (e.g. recognising possible issues highlighted that will help address the problem and overcome barriers) - this phase would shape phase 2 of my research and the extent of resources or solutions that would be appropriate.
Text from paper:
Strauss himself considered abduction to be the basis of GT (as recounted by Charmaz, 2014, p. 202), although he wrote little about it. One possible reason for this is that Strauss based much of his understanding of pragmatism on Dewey, who did not use the term abduction. Even so, the process of abduction is clearly located within the third of Dewey’s five- step process of inquiry, when the inquirer searches for possible solutions that would resolve the problematic situation. In particular, the problematic situation that initiates inquiry cannot, by definition, be resolved solely through existing beliefs, so the suggested solution that emerges in the third step of inquiry must involve new insights.
Refer to my previous blog exploring grounded theory
https://helencwilson.blogspot.com/2022/08/methodologies-and-potential-of-grounded.html
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