Critical realism and learning analytics research

Learning analytics is a broad church that incorporates a range of topics and methodologies. As the field has developed some tension has emerged regarding a perceived contradiction between the implied constructivist ethos of the field and prevalent empirical practices that have been characterised as 'behaviourist' and 'positivist'. This paper argues that this tension is a sign of deeper metatheoretical faultlines that have plagued the social sciences more broadly. Critical realism is advanced as a philosophy of science that can help reconcile the apparent contradictions between the constructivist aims and the empirical practices of learning analytics and simultaneously can justify learning analytics' current methodological tolerance. The paper concludes that learning analytics, arrayed in realist terms, is essentially longitudinal and multimethodological, concerned with the socio-technical systems of learning and the problems of implementation, and has the potential to be emancipatory. Some methodological implications for learning analytics practice are discussed.