ABSTRACT
This chapter examines some of the key methodological trends in the educational IT literature in order to help us gain a better understanding of existing research and to inform future research design. The issue of research methodology is crucial to any study, as it underpins the types of questions that can be addressed and the nature of the evidence that is generated (Clark, et al. 1984, Shulman 1986). The approach employed also has implications for the uses that can legitimately be made of research outcomes. For example, within an empiricist approach it would be assumed that one could make generalisations based on research findings, while this may not even be a goal for many interpretivist researchers (Schofield 1993). Thus, the purposes underpinning one’s research need to inform the methodology employed (Underwood and Underwood 1997).
