UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA (UNISA)
College of Education
⋄
The Context of Research and Its Influence
on Educational Research
Learning Unit 2: Contexts of Research — Assignment 02, 2026
⋄
Module Code: RSE4801
Module Name: Research in Education
Assignment No.: Assignment 02
Due Date: Friday, 6 July 2026
Lecturer: Dr C.E. Daniels
Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for Research in Education
at the University of South Africa.
, UNISA | RSE4801 Contexts of Research
Explain How the Context of Research Influences Educational Research
1. Introduction
Educational research never happens in a vacuum. Every research question, every chosen
method, and every reported finding emerges from a web of conditions that the researcher
did not choose and often cannot fully see. Cohen, Manion and Morrison (2018) open their
foundational text on educational research methods by situating the entire research process
within what they term the context of educational research, treating context not as background
detail but as the starting point for understanding why research takes the shape it does. This
essay explains what is meant by the context of research in education, discusses how micro,
meso, and macro factors shape educational research, shows how research itself contributes to
creating and reshaping educational and social contexts, examines broader political, economic,
cultural, historical, and environmental influences on research, and considers how neoliberal-
ism, neocolonialism, capitalism, globalisation, and the Anthropocene condition the kind of
educational knowledge that researchers are able to produce.
2. Defining the Context of Research in Education
The context of research refers to the social, institutional, historical, and ideological conditions
within which a research question is formulated, a methodology is selected, data is gathered,
and findings are interpreted and applied. Cohen, Manion and Morrison (2018) argue that deci-
sions about what counts as a worthwhile research problem, which populations are studied, and
which methods attract funding are never neutral technical choices. They are bound up with
values, power relations, and the purposes research is meant to serve within a given society. A
study of school dropout in a rural Limpopo community, for example, cannot be designed or
interpreted in the same way as a comparable study in a well-resourced Johannesburg suburb,
because the surrounding conditions of poverty, infrastructure, language policy, and history dif-
fer substantially between the two settings. Context therefore acts on the questions researchers
consider worth asking, the methods considered appropriate or rigorous, the kind of knowledge
that gets produced and accepted as valid, and the eventual influence research has on practice,
policy, and society. Understanding context is consequently not an optional preliminary step in
a research proposal but a condition for reading any piece of educational research critically and
for judging what its findings can and cannot claim to show.
Page 1 of 7
College of Education
⋄
The Context of Research and Its Influence
on Educational Research
Learning Unit 2: Contexts of Research — Assignment 02, 2026
⋄
Module Code: RSE4801
Module Name: Research in Education
Assignment No.: Assignment 02
Due Date: Friday, 6 July 2026
Lecturer: Dr C.E. Daniels
Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for Research in Education
at the University of South Africa.
, UNISA | RSE4801 Contexts of Research
Explain How the Context of Research Influences Educational Research
1. Introduction
Educational research never happens in a vacuum. Every research question, every chosen
method, and every reported finding emerges from a web of conditions that the researcher
did not choose and often cannot fully see. Cohen, Manion and Morrison (2018) open their
foundational text on educational research methods by situating the entire research process
within what they term the context of educational research, treating context not as background
detail but as the starting point for understanding why research takes the shape it does. This
essay explains what is meant by the context of research in education, discusses how micro,
meso, and macro factors shape educational research, shows how research itself contributes to
creating and reshaping educational and social contexts, examines broader political, economic,
cultural, historical, and environmental influences on research, and considers how neoliberal-
ism, neocolonialism, capitalism, globalisation, and the Anthropocene condition the kind of
educational knowledge that researchers are able to produce.
2. Defining the Context of Research in Education
The context of research refers to the social, institutional, historical, and ideological conditions
within which a research question is formulated, a methodology is selected, data is gathered,
and findings are interpreted and applied. Cohen, Manion and Morrison (2018) argue that deci-
sions about what counts as a worthwhile research problem, which populations are studied, and
which methods attract funding are never neutral technical choices. They are bound up with
values, power relations, and the purposes research is meant to serve within a given society. A
study of school dropout in a rural Limpopo community, for example, cannot be designed or
interpreted in the same way as a comparable study in a well-resourced Johannesburg suburb,
because the surrounding conditions of poverty, infrastructure, language policy, and history dif-
fer substantially between the two settings. Context therefore acts on the questions researchers
consider worth asking, the methods considered appropriate or rigorous, the kind of knowledge
that gets produced and accepted as valid, and the eventual influence research has on practice,
policy, and society. Understanding context is consequently not an optional preliminary step in
a research proposal but a condition for reading any piece of educational research critically and
for judging what its findings can and cannot claim to show.
Page 1 of 7
