A topic in research methodology
A research programme is a series of studies that are part of an overall planned enquiry. The term was popularised by Imre Lakatos (1970), who suggested that key features of a research programme were the fixed content aof commitments (for example to key entities or ideas) 'adumbrated' from the programme's inception (the hard core of the programme) which would be protected in the sense that those working in the programme would follow a 'negative heuristic' not to challenge that core, and the 'protective belt' of subsidiary theory that would be built up arround it – and open to modifiction as new evidence became available and which the 'positive heuristic' required researhers to develop.
…The research programme is defined through a 'hard core' of commitments that researchers in that particular tradition share, and an agreed plan for developing understanding in the topic through particular lines of research. The philosopher Lakatos* (1970) suggested that theory developed in the programme acted as a 'protective belt', as it was always understood in ways that were consistent with the hard core assumptions, and could be sacrificed (replaced, modified) to protect those assumptions if the interpretation of new evidence required it. However, the programme was only worth supporting as long as such changes in the theory in the protective belt were seen as progressive (for example, offering better explanatory and predictive power – rather than just constantly patching up the theory in an 'ad hoc' fashion to fit data already collected)."
Taber, 2013: 115-116
The idea of hard core commitments which should not be challenged mayseem to go against the values of science, which suggest that all ideas should be open to testing and modification. Lakatos suggested that in practice rather than accept the first negatvie result in a prgoramme as a refutation, scientists would tolerate some anomalies (at least for a time) as long as a researchr programme was judged to be making some progress. (This made sense as often such anomalies come to be found as errors, or to be explainable as the thoeriy becoiems more sophisticated.) Ultmately, however, hard core ideas may need to be abandoned – and with them the specific research programme.
The 'hard core' of commitments link to Thomas Kuhn's idea of paradigms*, and may include ontological commitments (e.g., to the kinds of entities that {do or do not} exist – intelligence, concepts, good schools, social class, race, giftedness…} and epistemological commitments (e.g., to the kind of knowledge it is possible to have about another person's ideas).
It has been suggested that in physics,equations can be considered as research programmes:
"An equation, and in particular a differential equation, is not so much an 'end-point' that sums up existing knowledge , as a starting point: Newton's equations (just as all fundamental equations of modern physics) are in fact research programmes."
Krivine, 2011/2015
This seems to be a category error – equations cannot be a programme of research. More likely, this is meant as a rhetorical flourish – it would be better to suggest that in physics such equations or sets of equations (e.g., Maxwell's equations of electromagnetism) can form the hard core of research programmes.
* Paradigms – disambigutation
In Kuhn's work paradigms related to areas of theory such as Newtonian physics or natural selection. This is somewhat different from the use of the terms as a model experimental design in psychology, or how the term is used in educational and social research to refer to a broad set of commitments relating to a research stance.
Read about paradigms in educational research
Source cited:
- Krivine, H. (2011/2015) The Earth. From myths to knowledge. Verso
- Lakatos, I. (1970). Falsification and the methodology of scientific research programmes. In I. Lakatos & A. Musgrove (Eds.), Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge (pp. 91-196). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
- Taber, K. S. (2013). Classroom-based Research and Evidence-based Practice: An introduction (2nd ed.). London: Sage.
My introduction to educational research:
Taber, K. S. (2013). Classroom-based Research and Evidence-based Practice: An introduction (2nd ed.). London: Sage.
