Art Hammer | The Open University (original) (raw)
Papers by Art Hammer
Educational Action Research, 1993
This article sketches the development of the idea that educational research should be integrated ... more This article sketches the development of the idea that educational research should be integrated with the work of teachers in schools, in the form of the teacher-as-researcher. The arguments advanced in support of this proposal are examined. These consist in part of criticisms of conventional educational research: on the grounds that it is less likely to be educationally relevant and valid than teacher research, and that it is undemocratic and exploitative of teachers. An equally important part of the case for teacher research, of course, is criticisms of 'traditional' teaching, both for the nature of the classroom learning it encourages and for its 'unreflective' character. The conclusion drawn from assessment of these arguments is that, while they have some force, they are not conclusive; and they do not add up to a convincing case for the superiority of teaching-as-research.
The AAG Review of Books, 2022
This edited collection reports “experiments” with creative strategies for analyzing research data... more This edited collection reports “experiments” with creative strategies for analyzing research data to generate new insights. There are nineteen chapters, in addition to the Introduction and two Afterwords. The chapters are divided into sections concerned with “Bodily Practices and Relocations,” “Physical Objects,” “Infrastructural Play,” and “Incommensurabilities.” One of the editors is an anthropologist, the other works in science and technology studies (STS), and most of the contributors share one or the other of these disciplinary affiliations. The two Afterwords are authored by postgraduate students.
London Review of Education
Arriving in the UK after exile from Nazi Germany, Karl Mannheim taught sociology at the London Sc... more Arriving in the UK after exile from Nazi Germany, Karl Mannheim taught sociology at the London School of Economics and then also at the London Institute of Education, where he was awarded a chair just a year before his untimely death in 1947. In his later writings and teaching, Mannheim argued that the sociology of education could make a crucial contribution to the new type of society he regarded as essential if the problems of liberal democracy were to be overcome, and the slide towards totalitarianism avoided. And the period immediately after his death was a key phase in the development and establishment of the sociology of education in Britain. Jean Floud, who took over teaching the subject at the Institute of Education after Mannheim’s death, played a central role in this, but, while she had studied with him and served as his research assistant, she adopted a very different approach. This focused, in particular, on whether the existing structure and operation of educational inst...
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this p... more The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
Methodological Innovations, 2020
This article examines the character of a small but detailed observational study that focused on t... more This article examines the character of a small but detailed observational study that focused on two teams of researchers, one engaged in qualitative sociological research, the other developing statistical models. The study was presented as investigating ‘the social life of methods’, an approach seen by some as displacing conventional research methodology. The study drew on ethnomethodology, and was offered as a direct parallel with ethnographic and ethnomethodological investigations of natural scientists’ work by Science and Technology Studies scholars. In the articles deriving from this study, the authors show how even the statisticians relied on background qualitative knowledge about the social phenomena to which their data related. The articles also document routine practices employed by each set of researchers, some ‘troubles’ they encountered and how they dealt with these. Another theme addressed is whether the distinction between quantitative and qualitative approaches accurat...
Educational Action Research, 1993
This article sketches the development of the idea that educational research should be integrated ... more This article sketches the development of the idea that educational research should be integrated with the work of teachers in schools, in the form of the teacher-as-researcher. The arguments advanced in support of this proposal are examined. These consist in part of criticisms of conventional educational research: on the grounds that it is less likely to be educationally relevant and valid than teacher research, and that it is undemocratic and exploitative of teachers. An equally important part of the case for teacher research, of course, is criticisms of 'traditional' teaching, both for the nature of the classroom learning it encourages and for its 'unreflective' character. The conclusion drawn from assessment of these arguments is that, while they have some force, they are not conclusive; and they do not add up to a convincing case for the superiority of teaching-as-research.
The AAG Review of Books, 2022
This edited collection reports “experiments” with creative strategies for analyzing research data... more This edited collection reports “experiments” with creative strategies for analyzing research data to generate new insights. There are nineteen chapters, in addition to the Introduction and two Afterwords. The chapters are divided into sections concerned with “Bodily Practices and Relocations,” “Physical Objects,” “Infrastructural Play,” and “Incommensurabilities.” One of the editors is an anthropologist, the other works in science and technology studies (STS), and most of the contributors share one or the other of these disciplinary affiliations. The two Afterwords are authored by postgraduate students.
London Review of Education
Arriving in the UK after exile from Nazi Germany, Karl Mannheim taught sociology at the London Sc... more Arriving in the UK after exile from Nazi Germany, Karl Mannheim taught sociology at the London School of Economics and then also at the London Institute of Education, where he was awarded a chair just a year before his untimely death in 1947. In his later writings and teaching, Mannheim argued that the sociology of education could make a crucial contribution to the new type of society he regarded as essential if the problems of liberal democracy were to be overcome, and the slide towards totalitarianism avoided. And the period immediately after his death was a key phase in the development and establishment of the sociology of education in Britain. Jean Floud, who took over teaching the subject at the Institute of Education after Mannheim’s death, played a central role in this, but, while she had studied with him and served as his research assistant, she adopted a very different approach. This focused, in particular, on whether the existing structure and operation of educational inst...
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this p... more The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
Methodological Innovations, 2020
This article examines the character of a small but detailed observational study that focused on t... more This article examines the character of a small but detailed observational study that focused on two teams of researchers, one engaged in qualitative sociological research, the other developing statistical models. The study was presented as investigating ‘the social life of methods’, an approach seen by some as displacing conventional research methodology. The study drew on ethnomethodology, and was offered as a direct parallel with ethnographic and ethnomethodological investigations of natural scientists’ work by Science and Technology Studies scholars. In the articles deriving from this study, the authors show how even the statisticians relied on background qualitative knowledge about the social phenomena to which their data related. The articles also document routine practices employed by each set of researchers, some ‘troubles’ they encountered and how they dealt with these. Another theme addressed is whether the distinction between quantitative and qualitative approaches accurat...