What this analysis makes clear is that scientific rationalism is concerned only with those
situations in which one person’s explicit knowledge is transmitted to others as explicit
knowledge—(bottom-right cell of Figure 1). Communicative rationalism, on the other
hand, involves all the kinds of knowledge-creation shown in Figure 1.
The framework offered by Nonaka and Tageuchi allows us to regard the knowledge that is
generated in a clinical practice approach to research alongside that generated by more
traditional forms of inquiry. More importantly, it offers a way of thinking about how we
might move beyond these dualities to a more integrated approach to knowledge
management. The systemic knowledge generated as a result of “traditional” research can
become operational knowledge through “learning by doing.” This operational knowledge
becomes sympathized knowledge when experience of practitioners is shared, and dialogue
between teachers supports the creation of conceptual knowledge in practice. Networking
with other professionals produces new systemic knowledge, and so the cycle can repeat.
Conclusion
In this response I have used three theoretical perspectives in an attempt to illuminate, and to
deepen the argument made by Bulterman-Bos about the contributions that a clinical
approach might make to educational research.
First I suggested that the three main intellectual virtues identified by Aristotle—episteme,
techne, and phronesis—exemplify the skills required by the “pure” educational researcher,
the skilled classroom practitioner, and the clinical researcher respectively. Second I
proposed that the framework of inquiry systems proposed by Churchman—based on
whether logic, observation, representation, dialectic, or values were regarded as the main
source of evidence—provided a useful way of thinking about different kinds of inquiry in
education. Specifically, I suggested that while the phronetic researcher may be, at any one
time, operating in Leibnizian, Lockean, Kantian or Hegelian mode, these are always moral
choices that the researcher is prepared to defend, since the primary aim is to do good.
Third, I suggested that the framework for knowledge transfer proposed by Nonaka &
Tageuchi (1996) indicates a way in which knowledge gained through different methods of
inquiry might be developed in parallel, and perhaps even integrated, so that educational
research can become a powerful force for acting well in the world.
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