Is Instructional Technology Research Socially Relevant?
Social relevance is an issue that is obviously subject to much debate. One’s age, race, gender, socioeconomic status, education, religion, political allegiance, and many other factors are likely to influence one’s interpretation of the social relevance of any given research study. Nevertheless, for the sake of this analysis, I will attempt to define social relevance with respect to scientific inquiry. My definition is based upon the following principles that guide scientific research (derived from Casti, 1à989): • Science is an ideology that consists of a cognitive structure concerning the nature of reality together with processes of inquiry, verification, and peer review. • Views of reality differ according to one’s philosophy of science, e.g., realism maintains that an objective reality exists, instrumentalism asserts that reality is the readings noted on measuring instruments, and relativism claims that reality is what the community says it is. • Scientific research is a social acti
