Engaging Graduate Education: A Pedagogy for Epistemological and Theoretical Diversity

Abstract

In the wake of paradigmatic and methodological wars, a post-paradigmatic time of epistemological and theoretical diversity in educational research calls for rethinking graduate education. The authors argue for an engaged pedagogy, which represents a shift in emphasis from instrumental training in research methods to an approach in which students develop appreciation for complex possibilities. Through a pedagogy informed by Freire, Noddings, and hooks, the authors suggest that graduate students, valued as knowing subjects, may enrich their investigations of educational problems and questions with epistemologies and theoretical perspectives that value their individual identities and inform their "life-projects."