The “Before” of Empirical Research in Education and its Epistemological-Theoretical Consequences

Abstract

The problem of the temporality of empirical research in education is often addressed only on a methodological and technical-instrumental level, while it is less common to find contributions to this subject that emphasize its role from an epistemological and theoretical point of view. In an attempt to contribute to make this debate less marginal, the article analyses the problem of the “before” of empirical research in education in the positivist and ecological paradigms, in order to highlight the consequences at the level of pedagogical epistemology and educational theory. This analysis, restoring some of the aporias that the aforementioned models run into, proposes to rethink the “before” of empirical research in education in the light of the comprehensive-transactional paradigm of the Deweyan matrix, highlighting its positive effects in epistemological and theoretical terms.