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Ontology
Ontology
To begin your research studies, it is useful to understand the ontology, epistemology, pedagogy, and methodology used by researchers, as social science research is often influenced by the researchers' positions on these disciplines. It can help you understand your own research, as well as the research of others, at a much higher level if you are aware of the underlying perspectives researchers have when conducting and reporting on their research.
While philosophy and social science in general explore a wide range of categories, in computer science, ontologies are more specifically a representation, formal naming, and definition of categories, properties, and relationships between concepts, data, and entities. While you are being asked to define your personal ontology in relation to educational technologies using the various categories and perspectives we will explore, you need to be mindful that in computer science, an ontology is framed in a much more specific way.
This understanding of Ontology is, however, becoming increasingly important as we develop AI-based teaching and research tools that require specification and categorisation of approaches that we often take for granted. The Semantic Web is an extension of the World Wide Web, aiming to make all Internet data machine-readable through the use of a Resource Description Framework (RDF) and Web Ontology Language (OWL). This type of Ontology can describe concepts, relationships between entities, and categories of things, and these embedded semantics let AI systems reason about available data and sources.
For your purposes, though, Ontology is the study of being. Ontological assumptions concern what constitutes reality, and an Ontology is a system of belief that reflects an individual's interpretation of what constitutes reality.
An ontological position refers to the researcher relationship with the reality of their study. For example, whether they consider reality to be independent of their knowledge, or whether they participate in the construction of that reality.
There are several philosophies of research, including Logical Positivism, Relativism, Pragmatism, and Realism. Ontologically speaking, realism and logical positivism both view reality as objective, i.e., independent of our cognition; whereas pragmatism and relativism regard reality as subjective, although their ontological positions differ somewhat. Pragmatism holds that reality imposes constraints on human action, whereas relativism posits that reality is socially constructed.
Realist ontology is objective
Realist epistemology is objective
Relativist ontology is subjective
Relativist epistemology is subjective
Clear as mud? All you need to decide is where on the spectrum from Realist to Relativist you are most comfortable. Things will become a little clearer as we progress.
Epistemology
Epistemology
Once you have a basic understanding of your position on what exists in reality, you can consider how we create knowledge about this reality. This is called your Epistemology. While the study of Epistemology can become quite complex, for now, you should consider three main perspectives, roughly corresponding to the Ontological spectrum:
Objectivism
Constructionism
Subjectivism
and once you have decided upon an Epistemological position, we can explore how these can be applied as a Theoretical Perspective to guide your research.
Objectivism is the belief that knowledge exists independently of human knowledge or perception of it. Reality exists independently of consciousness, human beings have direct contact with reality through sense perception, and one can attain objective knowledge from perception through the process of concept formation and inductive logic. Research is a process of uncovering these existing truths about the natural world, and research objectivity requires that particular perspectives, value commitments, community bias or personal interests should not influence the methods and results of research.
Constructionism is the belief that knowledge is developed through a constructed process. While the world is independent of human minds, knowledge of the world is always a human and social construction. Constructivism opposes the philosophy of objectivism, embracing the belief that we can come to know the truth about the natural world without necessarily the rigour of scientific approximations. According to constructivists, there is no single valid methodology in research, but rather a diversity of useful methods.
Subjectivism is the belief that our own mental activity is the only unquestionable fact of our experience, and instead of shared or communal, there is no external or objective truth. For example, you may consider the reality is that chocolate is tasty, but this may not necessarily hold for everybody, and just because we have a socially agreed-upon view that chocolate is delicious, this does not make it so in all cases. In research, subjectivism dominates qualitative methodologies, where we construe interactions between researcher and subjects (through interviews in particular) and the active interpretation of data—which are central features of qualitative research—as a license for the free exercise of subjective processes.
Theoretical Perspectives
Theoretical Perspectives
Now that you have a basic grasp of what reality is (Ontology) and how we can understand it (Epistemology), you can take a Theoretical Perspective on the process of research. This is again on a general spectrum, ranging from considering the process of research (Knowledge acquisition) to be deductive, value-free, and generalisable, through to the process of research being inductive, value-laden, and contextually unique.
Within this perspective, we apply our research to predict, understand, emancipate, liberate, or deconstruct, using different Theoretical Perspectives. Each perspective uses a range of research methodologies. It is important to note that we may use different Theoretical Perspectives depending on the type (Application) of the research question being explored.
Having articulated your Ontology, Epistemology and Theoretical Perspective lets see how accurate you have been! Complete this quiz:
How closely did the quiz results match the Ontology, Epistemology and Theoretical Perspective you framed for yourself?
You have only touched the surface of the philosophical issues involved. The point is not to lock down exactly what your philosophy is; that will not occur in a few days or weeks. For many researchers, it never occurs completely, and yours may very well change during your studies and career, but what you should have is a better understanding that different researchers approach conducting research and present their findings from very different perspectives. This is important - it will help you understand their research better, and by being able to articulate a perspective, even if imperfect, it will enable others to understand your research better.
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