Philosophy and Practice - Why Does This Matter?

Abstract

Introduction <br/> Those who are approaching (or doing) practice-based research need to understand the tradition, the philosophical underpinning, of that work. This is especially the case where the neophyte researcher is most likely to think of research in the most common tradition of unidisciplinary work governed by laws, as is the case in the vast majority of PhDs. As will be discussed below, one way of understanding this is to think of such research as mode 1 (see below). In contrast, professional doctorate (PD) research is more often mode 2 and as such is transdisciplinary. Each has its own philosophical tradition. <br/> The work of Gibbons et al. (1994) was an important breakthrough for many interested in doctoral education as it clarified and crystallised the otherwise implied distinctions between the PhDs and the PDs that were being addressed in the early years (1990s). However, recent research by Flood (2011a), discussed below, has shown that the work of Gibbons et al. can be thought of as one of the more recent developments of a long-standing and important thread in philosophical thought.