Abduction as an alternative in didactic research

Abstract

This article aims to highlight how abductive logic may contribute to didactic research.  The relationships between practice and theory are important as conditions for scientific knowledge production. More specifically the relation is important for practitioners' possibilities to experience that the research is relevant for them. Design-wise abduction contributes to placing reflection on relationships between theory and practice in the foreground. In the article, the relations are discussed as challenges linked to utility of didactic research and how research may be made available to practice. With this, we aim to contribute to a discussion about methodological considerations in didactic research. Earlier, the importance of theoretical choice has been illuminated in terms of the applicability of theories in practice, and choice of methods has primarily been described in action research and learning/lesson studies. In collaborative projects between researchers and practitioners’ questions have been raised about who formulates the research question, who is responsible for the design, and who benefits from the results. Metatheoretical points of departure and methodological issues in a more general sense have not, however, drawn significant attention. In a rapidly changing society, like ours, demands are constantly made on education and teaching to be reviewed and reshaped according to needs and demands that are formulated at different levels, both by practitioners, principals, and politicians. Phenomena studied in education are complex, thus, creating specific conditions for understanding and explaining those phenomena. Education involves cultural, psychological as well as physical, and external factors. Abduction may counteract too narrow understandings and explanations in research on teaching, by focusing on continuous development. Thus, the knowledge contribution may be formulated as didactic models and, or, concepts that contribute to the analysis, planning, and development of teaching. We provide examples from two different dissertations to illustrate how research background, selection of participants, settings, analyses, and contribution of knowledge may turn out in abductive processes. The two dissertations are of different character. One of the dissertations displays abductive processes from the start in describing and analyzing how students’ influence on their education may work. The other dissertation displays three studies on literacy practices, how they may be described by use of statistics, students' voices, and teachers' voices, where the abductive process rather got visible over time. In the final discussion validity and availability are given special attention and we hope that the article may contribute to a discussion of how the utility of didactic research may benefit methodologically and be strengthened by the employment of abduction. We claim that the validity of didactic research constantly must be tried and questioned, as the utility of the research may not be taken for granted. Research in the field of educational science is expected to respond to demands of proven experience and scientific principles. Design in didactic research needs a methodologic approach where the outcomes of research can be a common concern. Nevertheless, that working teachers have opportunities to take part in and employ novel research in their teaching could be an aim for researchers in the field of education. Another important implication that evolves in the article that is interesting is the possibility of a critical stance towards the influence of external factors and discourses that may affect how students' life chances are manifested, when didactic issues are considered. Critical realism may provide such space and the role of abduction promotes possibilities to challenge questions concerning evidence-based practice that could be narrowing the scope of research. Hopefully, our article will stimulate a further discussion among the readers and create interest in some of the ideas and procedures that abduction involves as one way to bridge the gap between practice and research, as well as concerning issues of power in the teaching-practice and dealing with power relations between researchers and practitioners.