Education Research: Taking Subjective Based Research Seriously

Qualitative based research is often criticized for being bias and unscientific. In an educational institution dominated by researchers in the scientific discipline where positivism’s methodology reigns supreme, it is often difficult to convince research colleagues of the true value of research that are subjective. In this paper the authors seek to investigate how other researchers from the scientific community, namely from the engineering discipline, who are familiar with scientific based research perceive education research that are subjective and value-laden. Thus, this paper attempts to answer the following questions:
1. How familiar are the researchers from the engineering discipline, in subjective, qualitative based education research?
2. What are the engineering researchers’ perceptions regarding the contribution of qualitative based research?
The authors believe that the findings from this study can address any gap that might exist in the engineering lecturers’ understanding of subjective education research. It is also hoped that the findings from this study can highlight that different epistemologies help produce different knowledge, and that subjective research can produce noteworthy research findings in the field of education.