Social Constructivism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Social Constructivism - Essay Example Social constructivism does not distinguish between truth and falsehood, judging both equally suspendable. It leaves no place for the distinction between true and false accounts of nature in its accounts of the development of science. By being uninterested in whether a science is true, by treating truth and falsity equally, that is, by treating unequal as if they were equal, constructivists suspend and fail to see the essential. Whereas it would be a major accomplishment for the sociology of science to explain true knowledge as well as false pretensions of knowledge, it is a major regression for such sociology to obscure the difference between the two. A central theme of social constructivism is that no social practice must be enshrined as a restricted way of getting at truth. No practice can put claim to universal, eternal, or context-free legitimacy. Social constructivists and other postmodernists seek to demystify or deconstruct science's epistemic authority. One route to demystifi cation is to argue that science is just a highly elaborate set of social conventions--a "discursive formation" (Foucault) or "form of life" (Wittgenstein)--which arose in a particular historical setting and captured the loyalty of our culture, but which has no intrinsic claim to epistemic superiority. Translated into our terminology, this position implies that science is veritistically no better than other practices, despite the special reputation it enjoys. The constructivist perspective embodies a number of theoretical tensions stemming. from its attempt to embrace a relativistic epistemology with respect to selected aspects of science while exhibiting a fairly inflexible commitment to epistemological realism in its own work. ( Woolgar 1983: 262) Constructivist sociologists adopt a variety of strategies in their attempt to defend themselves against the criticism that constructivism undermines itself. Some constructivists merely assert that constructivism does not undermine itself, in the hope that repetition will be as effective as argument or evidence. Other constructivists claim that their studies analyze how the original account was arrived at, but have no implications for the truth or falsity of that account. Constructivists thereby only criticize the view that scientists see the world "plainly," "straightforwardly," without skills ( Yearley 1991: 120, 143). Thus constructivist sociology of science has no implications concerning the validity of science, constructivist criminology has little bearing on the

(Ethical considerations and Data analysis) which are two parts of my Essay

(Ethical considerations and Data analysis) which are two parts of my full proposal - Essay Example This is important because the research would be conducted among members of this faculty and permission is required from the relevant authority. In asking for the permission to conduct the research, a letter will be sent which articulates crucial details of the various reasons why we have chosen that particular department to conduct our research there. Consequently, the letter also addresses issue of approval to conduct the study through the questionnaire and interview primary methods. Confidentiality in data collection will be applied through anonymity or use of letter symbols like letter b. Part of sample consists of a dean and five heads of departments who are all leaders. In this regards, it will be easy to conduct interviews or collect data through questionnaire in anonymity and the ensuing data will be used in the study without infringing any legal rights of the respondents in the research. Data analysis alludes to different methods that help to describe facts, tests hypotheses, detect patterns and develop explanations. It is applied in many areas of research and it does not necessarily involve numbers because it may be either qualitative or quantitative. After data collection, the next logical step is to analyze it because it will help the researcher to edit the information on the questionnaires and interviews. After refining of the questions and editing the already available ones, new questions for the interviews and questionnaires will be appearing in the next interviews for response by the respondents. This means that the data analysis process is interactive and in participatory way which will continue until consistent results are gotten (Pidgeon & Henwood, 1996). The research will involve both qualitative as well as quantitative data analysis. In qualitative data analysis method, there are five main steps to be followed for its accomplishment. The first step is taking enough time to read and review the data which has been gotten from