A methodological dialog on educational research

The multiple dimensions of the so-called crisis of modernity that social sciences and the humanities experience ― added to the breakneck-speed adaptation of educational systems to online or hybrid education due to the COVID-19 pandemic ― have brought to the forefront education as a heavily tensed field of knowledge through which we can also reflect on the complex times we live in. With that background as a frame of reference, we believe this to be fertile ground for the actors of education around the world to undertake research projects that provide access to new explanations, novel routes and ways to do research, and raise new questions on the many phenomena on which contemporary educational practices converge, and on their possible links also with broader social and cultural processes beyond the space of the school.

Despite all the uncertainties it has been going through, education continues to be the socialization practice to which millions of children and youths attach their biographies in most civilized societies. Such prescriptions have been historically the engine of formation in a field of study that has evolved mainly through the emergence of theoretical and methodological paradigms that have allowed educational research to construct problems and objects of study, develop theoretical frameworks, frame conceptual approaches, choose techniques and develop research instruments, as well as systematize and analyze data.

From the emergence of the so-called experimental pedagogy to the transition to the field of educational research, we may identify a diverse array of epistemological and methodological conceptions on which the practices of production of knowledge on phenomena related to education are founded. When we read the most recent diagnoses on this field, we can glimpse a very diverse spectrum of theoretical and methodological proposals, but also new approaches to current educational phenomena, opening interdisciplinary conversations with other forms of knowledge in which the emergent and most recent complexities that the subjects of education experience are incorporated.

The study of the problems in which educational practices are immersed is such a broad task that it turns educational research into a multi-, trans- and inter-disciplinary field that encompasses and at the same time is nourished by all the forms of knowledge and disciplines through which current knowledge can be problematized and new explanatory approaches can be proposed. It is a challenge and an opportunity to build a clearer radiography that allows us to identify the main tensions faced by education as a practice and as a field of knowledge.

Articulating a solid field of educational research requires reflexive, critical and well-argued discussion of the epistemological tenets that allow researchers to take apart the links between the elements upon which they construct educational problems, showing what it is they want to know about reality and choosing the theoretical and methodological routes to be followed by their research projects. Discussions on epistemological surveillance exercises in educational research are fundamental for the problematization of the methodological implications of research work, represented by the way in which researchers choose to approach the objects of study they have constructed, as well as the number of decisions they make on the methodological perspectives, techniques and tools used to construct data.

This dynamic, diverse and lively panorama within which educational research practices take place demands opening up a dialog that allows us to discuss not only the way we understand the current educational tensions but also the ways in which we conduct research in education, whose outcomes allow us to start a conversation on such uncertainties. We believe that all the demands and complexities of the fluctuating educational contexts nowadays invite us to stop and rethink collectively in order to achieve a greater understanding and the possibility of designing precise educational policies.

It is thus that Diálogos sobre Educación. Temas actuales en investigación educativa presents its Issue 26, entitled “The methodological outlook in education: views and perspectives”, coordinated by Rodrigo González Reyes and Dorismilda Flores Márquez, to whom we are profoundly thankful for their valuable work. We hope the dialog opened by this issue will be of great interest to our readers.