Reshaping the Arc of Quantitative Educational Research: It’s Time to Broaden Our Paradigm

Abstract

The arc of quantitative educational research should not be etched in stone but should adapt and change over time. In this article, I argue that it is time for a reshaping by offering my personal view of the past, present and future of our field. Educational research—and research in the social and life sciences—is at a crossroads. There are many reasons for this, but chief among them is the rapid rise of data science, which has implications for educational research in general and SREE in particular. I ask us to question whether our laser focus on causal inference—which will remain crucially important—has crowded out other methods for studying equally important—yet not necessarily causal—questions. After introducing the wisdom of four muses—two philosophers of science and two statisticians—I sketch my personal research trajectory and its intersection with the field’s. The remainder of the article describes three types of studies that I would like to see more of: longitudinal studies using truly longitudinal analyses; assessment and measurement studies; and studies using data science methods.