Researchers may be interpreting their work through false paradigms.

Gloria Ladson-Billings, Kellner Family Chair in Urban Education and a professor of curriculum and instruction and educational policy studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, spoke Thursday night in the Sun Room of the Memorial Union about the experiences and challenges of scholars of color who approach education from diverse and alternative perspectives.

She said there are three paradigms researchers use when doing their work, and these paradigms can often influence his or her results.

The first paradigm is the functionalist rationale model, in which a researcher studies while not being immersed in the culture. She said this model assumes the subject can be manipulated because the subjects become generalized.

“Working in this functionalist rational model means that researchers live with certain assumptions,” Ladson-Billings said. “They assume a rational system that can be managed and controlled by the manipulation of variables and introduction of certain treatments.”

The next perspective she examined was the interpretivist point of view. She said this view requires researchers to become immersed in the culture his or she is studying. However, Ladson-Billings said, their view is tainted by becoming immersed in their environment.

“Interpretivist theorists believe that it is important for researchers to become part of a research environment. Instead of claiming an objective stance, the interpretivists research or believe that the only way to understand social phenomena is to become a part of it,” Ladson-Billings said.

The third perspective is the conflict view.

“Researchers in this tradition take social inequality as a given, not inequality as inherent, but inequality is created by economic and social conditions. Prevailing inequality is the primary assumption of this position,” Ladson-Billings said. “Researchers in the position work to document inequality in hopes that those who are disadvantaged by current social arrangements will recognize inequality and rise up against it. Conflict theorists also assume that the society is organized to reproduce inequality.”

Ladson-Billings proposed that perspectives should not control the research.

“We’ve got answers for everything, what we don’t have are good questions and that’s really the eternal quest of a graduate student — to find a good question,” Ladson-Billings said. “Think of your methodology as a valuable tool for answering your question, not as the only tool that you have and so you feel compelled to use it.”

Ladson-Billings also said researchers should have a passion for the work they are doing and not for other reasons, such as getting grants.

“All researchers care about their work, but the depth of that care defines the drive and passion that motivates their inquiry,” she said.

The world should be viewed as curved, not simply flat or round, Ladson-Billings said.

“If you are convinced that the world is flat you will do research that can rarely go just so far before you fall over the edge. If you are convinced that it is round you may find yourself going in circles,” Ladson-Billings said.

“If you are willing to consider that the world might just be curvy, you have no way to anticipate where the next turn is and what lies around the corner.”