Educational Research in an Era of Paradigm Proliferation: What's a Journal Editor to Do?

Abstract

This editorial/essay functions on at least two levels. At the most obvious level, it is an attempt by theEducational Researcher's new Features Editor to figure out how to play the gatekeeper role at a time when there is little consensus in the field about what research is and what scholarly discourse should look like. Specific policies, procedures, and decision rules are articulated to guide the manuscript review process. The problems and issues confronting an editor of one of the field's major scholarly journals, however, can also be seen as representative of the types of problems and issues confronting others who play other sorts of roles in the field. Consequently, many of the issues discussed (e.g., the significance of discourse style, the inadequacy of the qualitative/quantitative distinction, the problems with the Balkanization response) and the principles articulated (e.g., the principle of pragmatic incommensurability) can be transferred to other situations beyond this particular case.