Abstract:

With the transition to a knowledge economy, research methodology has become an important part of the curricula of many business-oriented postgraduate programmes. (Saunders et al., 2016).

However, teaching research methodology involves several distinct difficulties. For instance, as Denzin & Lincoln have argued, it “crosses disciplines, fields and subject matters. […] There are separate and detailed literatures on the many methods and approaches that fall under the category” (Denzin & Lincoln, 2000:2). In other words, the subject resists any simple definition or description. As a consequence, lecturers face a problem of what to teach. It is an impossible task to design a single course or module that covers the whole field of research methodology.

Another albeit related problem is how to teach research methodology. Textbooks have tended to be dominated by instrumental or technical rationality and thus to treat research methodology as the application of methods to technical problems. Consequently, as argued by Freebody (2003:x), “the danger with `methods´ books is that the methods are presented for application as stand-alone procedures, apparently independent of the conceptual and practical issues that arise from studying the actual sites of the events under study.” Hence, many textbooks and course descriptions are rooted in an underlying and largely unexamined epistemology of research according to which researchers solve well-formed research problems by applying the theories and techniques of research methodology. In other words, researchers are instrumental problem solvers who select technical means best suited to particular research purposes and projects.

In this paper, I will argue that research competence could and should be something more and something else than instrumental competence. Based on a pragmatic reading of Batesons logical categories of learning, I develop a conceptual framework for research competencies in higher education, which highlight that research competence development could and should not limit itself to instrumental competencies. This framework highlights the importance of both instrumentality and contextually in research. Paraphrasing the philosopher Immanuel Kant, one can say that instrumentality without contextually is blind, whereas contextuality without instrumentality is empty. Based on a pragmatic reading and further development of Bateson´s logical categories of learning, the paper develops a conceptual framework for competence development in management education, and higher education in general, which includes not only instrumental, but also practical, analytical and critical competencies.

Keywords:

Methodology, research competency, higher education, instrumentality, contextually.