As stated above, we believe that this is a mainstream position
on educational research.
Anderson (1990) also identifies “four different levels at which
educational research takes place: descriptive, explanatory, generalization
and basic or theoretical” (p. 7). It is within the basic/
theoretical level that Anderson places philosophy as an associated
discipline:
While philosophy does not typically incorporate primary source data,
empirical evidence, or observation, it is included as an associated discipline
since it relies on similar approaches to other forms of theoretical
research.