Reality and challenges of qualitative research in education

Abstract

Education is a complex and changing reality with interactions and feedback, this makes educational research become a human process of agreement and disagreement. This situation leads to interwoven problem emergencies that lead to the construction of new images of educational praxis. This approach allows to affirm the existence of a diversity of research settings, annihilating the myth of unique and definitive methods. Because of this, qualitative research regains meaning. Precisely this study's fundamental purpose is to understand the qualitative investigative dynamics developed in the promotion work of the professors of the Education Program of the Francisco de Miranda National Experimental University from 2015 to 2019. It was developed with a qualitative approach, using the method Grounded theory and in-depth interview and document analysis techniques. 125 promotion jobs and 21 teachers were assumed as an observable reference. The findings include the existence of an academic training policy in the research area; timidity in the approach to qualitative research, presenting with greater emphasis the comprehensive-hermeneutic zone with the traditions: grounded theory, phenomenology, ethnography, action research and discourse analysis; Ten (10) research areas emerged with a preponderance of didactics. Among the conclusions is that qualitative research in education is a possibility with different epistemological and methodological perspectives, without pretending to be hegemonic. Thus, it allows the approach of non-traditional educational scenarios with processes of interaction and dialogue, emerging different research regions.