Making the Familiar Strange -- and Interesting -- Again: Interpretivism and Symbolic Interactionism in Educational Technology Research

The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the methodological and theoretical assumptions of interpretive research as proposed by Erickson (1986), based on the premises that Blumer (1969) posed for symbolic interactionism. A specific example of a conceptual framework for studying the major theoretical constructs identified in distance education research will be presented. Although this framework was initially developed for studying distance education and online learning environments, methodological and theoretical assumptions will be discussed as they relate to the general field of educational technology. Issues such as the kinds of research questions that are appropriate for interpretive research and the possible goals of inquiry will be discussed in detail and concrete examples will be presented. The emphasis of the discussion will be on the interplay among the researcher’s conceptual framework, role, data collection procedures, data analysis, and issues of validity, reliability, and generalizability.