Inducting BEd Hons students into a research culture and the world of research: the case of a research methods course in the BEd Hons programme
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Date
2013
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Unisa Press
Abstract
It has become a policy imperative that the training of future researchers in Education
should start at the Honours level. This training presents particular challenges as students
entering the Bachelor of Education Honours (BEd Hons) programme have diverse
professional backgrounds and personal motivations for pursuing the programme.
Moreover, the majority of the students have fairly substantial experience in schools,
one of the primary empirical sites for educational research. This diverse student profile
yields several challenges in relation to the teaching of a Research Methods course. In
this article, the authors reflect on their experiences of offering a BEd Hons course to
induct students into research against the traditional, literature-renditioned components
which comprise the practice of research in the Social Sciences. Working with the notions
of critical aspects and encounters, the authors found that students experience a tension
between their desire to solve their identified research problems in a common-sense
way and a teaching interaction that moves them to an abstract/theoretical level. In light
of this, the authors identify that students experience difficulty with shifting their strong
beliefs about knowing the answers (in terms of their research), to notions of doubt.
Each of these beliefs marks different academic cultures that respectively refer to, on
the one hand, a teaching practice-supervisor and, on the other, a participant observer inquirer.
The depth and richness of their experiences in the former tends to constrain the
transition from predetermined answers to a curiosity driven mode.
Description
Keywords
BEd Honours programme, Inducting students, Research culture, Participation
Citation
Thaver, B., Holtman, L. and Julie, C. (2013). Inducting Bed Hons students into a research culture and the world of research: the case of a research methods course in the Bed Hons programme. South African Journal of Higher Education (SAJHE), 27 (5): 1135-1148