Not to be confused with research on communities of participants, this session will deal with some notions of research as the social construction of reality and the resultant nature of research as community, situated within a particular socio-historical context. Research is not the dispassionate, objective activity that many take it to be. What counts as good research and what count as good research questions are defined by the communities of researchers in given locations at particular points in time.

Various philosophical notions taken from the work of Vygotsky along with notions of community will be used to help students to better sense the communities of researchers they are joining.

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