Interrogating Side Effects in Critical and Quantitative Research in Education

Abstract

Quantitative education research is often perceived to be “objective” or “neutral.” However, quantitative research has been and continues to be used to perpetuate inequities; these inequities arise as both intended effects and unintended side effects of traditional quantitative research. In this review of the literature, we synthesize how quantitative researchers have attempted to use critical paradigms to address questions of equity in education research published over the past 15 years. We identify and describe three main tensions that critical and quantitative researchers navigated: (a) creating and analyzing social group categories, (b) trying to describe commonalities within group experiences without erasing heterogeneity of experience within the group, and (c) determining what is a “significant” result when conducting critical and quantitative research.