Self-Imposed Blindness

Abstract

The quantitative research methods we use in education are derivatives of the scientific methods used to study physical phenomena. The scientific method is related to the philosophic principles of logical positivism. Taking these principles one can surmise the underlying assumptions behind our research in education and thus see its limitations more clearly. By comparing two articles which study the placement of students in special education along the lines of these assumptions, one can see how quantitative research as applied to education may have distorted our view of what really goes on in the education of high risk students. The author recommends that the field turn its attention toward establishing a body of knowledge derived from qualitative, not exclusively quantitative, research.