Recent times have seen an enormous increase in the demands on our educational system placed by the Society. A fresh attempt at renewing the emphasis on education with greater clarity is reflected in the National Policy on Education (NPE) 1986, which pledges to enhance the accountability and responsiveness of education to the developmental needs. In fact, one critical observation regarding the educational system has been that it is too slow in changing its substance and also the ways of transmitting it. The truth of this observation stares at any one concerned with and involved in the process of education in any capacity-teacher, administrator, pupil or parent. This, however, is a pointer more to the in adequacies within the operation of education rather than to the lack of advancements achieved in the field. The matter of concern to anyone interested in 'making the system work' more efficiently, as the NPE hopes to, is the persistence of the need within the educational system to seek to evolve more effective or 'better' methodologies for not only knowledge generation but also its dissemination. It is this need that brings to the fore the role of educational research as the necessary activity for supporting effective educational operations. It becomes the responsibility of those engaged in educational research to continually study the various aspects of education, identify what works and what does not, even critically question the available methods of study of educational phenomena, evolve more suitable and relevant methods and try them out. In a discipline such as Education which is an applied social science, carrying out such activities will require a lot of open, academic transactions between and among researchers and practitioners through which some problems and issues get clarified, and perhaps, solutions emerge for a few. This seems to be one sure way to ensure the consolidation of efforts in the field of educational research so that it is available to practitioners for guidance. This suggests that the progressiveness of any institution engaged in educational research lies in this effort to bridge the gap between theory and practice through research, to consolidate its outcomes in meaningful terms to both academicians and practitioners, and also, to make these available to anyone who is interested.
I am proud to note that the Centre of Advanced Study in Education (CASE) of this University, has been pursuing all three of such activities for over two decades now. The CASE has earned a name for itself in the country through several contributions it has made at the national forums such as seminars, workshops and journals, as well as its publications. This present volume is the latest addition to its achievements. Of course, this volume has its focus on methodological aspects of educational research which may be of immense use to anyone engaged in the study of education. This book of readings, interestingly enough, has collated thematically, several aspects of methodology, in a com prehensive perspective of educational operations within the larger societal con text. In doing so, the editors have brought under different themes several papers written across a long span of about twenty years. Most of these papers have been presented at the different forums that CASE has been providing. These papers reflect the trends generated and pursued in the field of educational research over the past two decades and thus, reflect the major and subtle breakthroughs in the methodological aspects.
However, presenting the evolving thoughts as they generated at different points in time, has a possible danger of perplexing the mind of a less discerning reader or a beginner in the field, with the variations or perhaps, even contradictions, presented by the same authors at different points in time. Visualising such a difficulty the editors have rightly enough presented an overview at the begining of each section as Editors' Note' which brings all papers in the section into a common perspective. Further, the various themes in the 7 sections have been woven into a comprehensive perspective for Educa tional Research in the initial chapter, Introduction. On the whole, each section articulates on one theme whereas the book as a whole presents a comprehensive network of different viewpoints and themes and thus, amply justifies its title, "Educational Research: Methodological Perspectives". I am sure the book makes an invaluable reference material for any student of Education by bringing several significant aspects under one coordinated perspective. This Book of Readings also enhances the hope of making educational research reap better success for education as one significant operational aspects in our society. The Editors need to be commended not only for their efforts in pooling together all these articles and presenting them in a meaningful way but also for bringing out such a volume as a befitting commemoration of the Silver Jubilee of the CASE. I congratulate the Editors for their effort and the CASE for the good academic contribution which this book surely is, and wish them further success.
Several interesting strides have been taken in the last decade and more in the field of educational research in India. There has been an increasing emphasis on educational research as the means of scrutinising several educational situations and generating relevant explanation and possible directions for further action. The Centre of Advanced Study in Education, M. S. University of Baroda, has been actively engaged in such pursuits which have made an impact on educational research and the understanding of Education. This has been achieved by the CASE through generating and maintaining active interactions among research scholars and academicians in Educational Research all over the country. Towards this it has continually allowed a flow of thought regarding various aspects of educational research in a systematic and penetrating manner by subjecting them to scrutiny at specially created forums. These forums include the annual national seminars, and discussion sessions with Visiting Fellows, Visiting Professors and guest lectures. Besides characterising all these efforts towards articulating on educational research, CASE has successfully sustained a programme of weekly seminars in which its staff and research scholars engage themselves in matters of relevance to various research studies undertaken and to enhance understanding of Education and Educational Research. As a fruitful outcome, several papers of academic relevance have been brought out and disseminated through their publications in various and periodicals.In the wake of such increasing fruits of efforts by the CASE and its Associates which are widely diffused and distributed we felt the need to consolidate all these efforts in one volume under different themes of Educational Research. What better way could be there to an institution concerned with academics than to bring out a commemorative volume on its completing of twenty five years of successful professional leadership.
So, here we are, bringing out this volume on "Educational Research: Methodological Perspectives", which is a collection of papers contributed by different specialists during a period of over a decade. The papers included in the present volume have been presented and discussed at the forums which had different purposes in focus. They have been contributed by those who associated themselves actively with the Centre of Advanced Study in Education as faculty members, research scholars, visiting professors, visiting fellows or in some such capacity during the period 1977-87. Through their association with CASE, these contributors have participated in prolonged inter action sessions and thereby aided a process of thinking and reflecting on matters of significance to researchers in the field of education. If one reads and scrutinises these papers more discerningly, a sustained effort at CASE for a considerable time could be noticed which has enabled to sharpen insights into the methodology of educational research. The papers have been produced in their original form not because we believe in any great stability of ideas and views on the methodology of educational research (instead, we hold the view that over a period of time these would undergo changes), but because we feel that these papers would show the process through which a group of professionals at CASE has viewed educational research and reflected upon its methodological aspects over a period of time. The discussion in most papers of this volume is at an advanced level and can be more useful and stimulating to those who have been introduced already to the basic and rudimentary knowledge and skills applied in conducting educational research. This volume may, therefore, be considered as complementary to the one which contains essentials of the methodology of educational research. In this connection it may be stated that some of the contributors to this volume have undertaken to bring out separately a volume on Methodology of Educational Research', which is in the form of self instructional modules on different themes of educational research covering basic knowledge and skills, and both these form parts of a bigger endeavour. In our opinion, these two volumes when read together will present more comprehensively and appropriately the fundamentals of methodology in educational research and the issues involved in its conceptualisation, application and organisation.
**Contents and Sample Pages**
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