Article by Juan David Parra Heredia on 'Critical realism and school effectiveness research in Colombia: the difference it should make'
This article by ISS PhD researcher, Juan David Parra Heredia is published in the British Journal of Sociology of Education. In the article he draws on the case of academic work produced by Colombian scholars, to address the debate on the persistent failure of policy efforts to improve school effectiveness.
He draws on realist meta-theory because it provides a general framework with which to identify ontological problems and inconsistencies in empirical and theoretical positions informing policy debates in the country.
The analysis focuses on the contributions and weaknesses of empiricism, structuralism and post-structuralism in the work of Colombian scholars, and concludes by arguing for the need to deploy research methodologies that study stratified emergent social processes behind observable educational outcomes.