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Data Return: The Sense of the Given in Educational Research
Author(s) -
Standish Paul
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
journal of philosophy of education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.501
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1467-9752
pISSN - 0309-8249
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9752.00240
Subject(s) - naturalness , data collection , educational research , epistemology , sociology , engineering ethics , data science , social science , computer science , philosophy , physics , quantum mechanics , engineering
Educational research is dominated by a particular model: data is gathered and analysed. Much literature on methods concerns either ways of processing data, or ethical issues regarding its collection and handling. The present paper looks beyond these matters to the taken‐for‐granted idea of data itself. What can be meant by ‘data’? How does this connect with ideas of the given? What is the place of giving in education—in teaching and learning, in research itself? These issues are explored in the light of information technology’s impact on research, uncovering ethical dimensions that the seeming naturalness of data otherwise obscures.