出版社：The Evaluation Center, Western Michigan University
摘要：This paper addresses an important problem that may really be a pseudoproblem
perpetuated by a current artificial or even political need to isolate researchers, evaluators, and theorists
and put them in conceptual-methodological boxes. In this paper, we argue that scholars of all kinds
should focus on the nouns (i.e., research, evaluation, theory) versus the adjectives (i.e., quantitative,
qualitative, or mixed methods) used to qualify these nouns and core constructs. In a word,
researchers, evaluators, measurement professionals, and theorists of all persuasions should strive to be
neither qualitative nor quantitative, as that is like striving to be a single leg in a triangle. Following
Hacking (1965), our view is that all forms of research methodology and evaluation methodology
represent a ¡°patchwork quilt¡± that is essentially ¡°one fabric¡± with two connected but often
unacknowledged sides to the quilt and that all methodology, analysis, and evaluations are essentially
¡°qual-quantification¡± and ¡°quant-qualification¡± and usually both at the same time. This general and
unified or ¡°one fabric¡± view of these debates and issues is discussed from a historical-philosophical
perspective, and the need for a more general and inclusive evaluation and research epistemology is
elucidated. Having outlined an epistemic framework and argument for a more comprehensive and
complete view and model of evaluation and research that transcends a specific research paradigm, the
paper concludes by outlining eight general key points that most (if not all) researchers and evaluators
should consider.
关键词：education; epistemology; measurement; qualitative research; quantitative research; research and
evaluation; meta-theory; mixed methods research
