The Power of the Code: Publication and Research Paradigms

Abstract

Top-ranked international journals typically require authors to write in English and this can present problems for speakers of other languages. The authors use this concern with linguistic codes as a metaphor for the dominance of particular research paradigms and the consequent difficulties of recognising heterodox paradigms. The importance of international journals is recognised but, through deconstructive and destabilising analyses, the authors consider the implications of this for academics using non-traditional approaches to research. The orthodoxy of positivistic research is considered in terms of traditional quantitative and qualitative research paradigms. The authors then address the importance of critical pedagogies and the problem of having appropriate research paradigms acknowledged in the top-ranked journals which signify the norms of educational research. The article focuses on educational research in the Netherlands, but has significance for all academics who do not speak English as a first language and for those who use alternative research paradigms.