Abstract

CAVALCANTI, Alberes de Siqueira. Epistemological views and educational research in the science teacher education. Educ. Pesqui. [online]. 2014, vol.40, n.4, pp.983-998. ISSN 1517-9702.  https://doi.org/10.1590/s1517-97022014121459.

There are no science teachers without a background epistemology, without an epistemological basis that gives them support for their teaching job. There is no research without an epistemological basis. Thus, to train research teachers, there is a need to face the challenge of epistemological training and the consequent discussion about epistemological views. The objective of this article is to present some of the main epistemological approaches in the field of educational research: dialectics, positivism, phenomenology, structuralism and complexity. Using the metaphor of vision in the subject-object relation of knowledge, I discuss epistemologies as possibilities of different views of the educational phenomena, which are sometimes convergent, sometimes divergent, complementing or excluding himself or herself. What an epistemological vision sees the other cannot see. In this perspective of educational research, we will be in constant dynamics between vision and/or blindness, the possibility of clarity and/or obscurity. Dialectics represents the vision in motion, seeking to capture the object in its entirety, from a historical perspective of changes and contradictions. Positivism is the outside vision, which distances itself seeking to quantify and measure the object, making it immune to the subjectivity of those who describe it. Phenomenology is the vision from inside, from what is experienced and interpreted by subjects at a given moment. Structuralism is the vision from underneath, which seeks to capture what sustains, the structure of social phenomena, regardless of their historical conditions. Complexity is the multidimensional vision that seeks to understand the complex fabric of reality, together, considering uncertainty and incompleteness.

Keywords : Epistemology; Educational research; Teacher education.

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