寻找实证研究的意义:比较—历史视域中的实证主义之争

In Search of the Meanings of Positive Research:A Retrospect of the Positivist Dispute in Social Science Research

二十一世纪初中美教育研究学界掀起不少对研究方法的讨论与行动,然而在有关议论中对实证研究及实证主义的意义的阐释却每欠清晰。就此,本文尝试从比较-历史的视城,回顾过去一个多世纪有关实证主义在社会科学研究(包括教育研究)中的应用及发展,以期归纳实证主义在社会科学研究中的意义。本文将展示,实证主义在过去百多年演变中经历了三个阶段——十九世纪末的实证主义、二十世纪上半叶的新实证主义、二十世纪后半叶的后实证主义,在各阶段的发展轨迹中,实证主义在社会科学及教育研究领域从来不是主导取向,不断遭遇到其他范式的强力挑战。据此,本文尝试证立,实证主义在教育研究领域并不是理所当然的主导行动纲领,它只是在二十一世纪教育研究的范式战争中一个备受争议的范式。因此,从事教育研究实践与教学的学者不应该只埋首聚焦于实证研究取向,更应具备多元范式的视野与胸襟;更重要的是,在教导年青学者从事教育研究工作时,培养他们对各种研究范式的敏感性及欣赏态度,而不是盲从于单一的研究取向。

The discourse on research methods has permeated educational researchers both in the USA and China's Mainland at the beginning of the twenty-first century.One of the focal themes emerged from this discourse is the advocacy for action to promote positive research in education.However,amid of these discussions,the meanings of positive research and positivism seem not to have been clarified.In order to merge this confusion of meanings,this paper intends to make use of the comparative-historical perspective to trace the disputes emerged from applications and developments of positivism in social and educational research in the past century.It aims to synthesize meanings emerged out of these disputes.The evolution of meanings of positivism will be periodized into three phases:positivism at the end of the nineteenth century,neo-positivism in the first half of the twentieth century,and post-positivism in the second half of the twentieth century.On each phase,positivism has never achieved the dominant and leading status as a research approach in social and educational research.It has constantly and forcefully been challenged by other inquiry paradigms in social sciences.Accordingly,this paper argues that positivism should not be advocated as a self-evidently definite guideline for education research as a whole.At its most,positivism should only be taken as one of the controversial paradigms in waging paradigm war of education research in the twenty-first,century.Accordingly,it is hope that scholars engaging in educational research should not narrowly concentrate on positive research alone.Instead,they should adopt a multi-paradigmic perspective.Furthermore,in advising researchers of the future generations,we should help them nurture a sensitive and appreciative attitude towards various inquiry paradigms and not commit blindly to a single research approach.