Some Epistemological Issues in the Conduct of Social and Behavioural Studies in the Faculty of Education of Nigeria Universities

A predominantly positivistic quantitative research tradition is uncovered through a survey of selected Nigerian universities with particular reference to the faculty of education. This predominance of what appears to be a one sided research enterprise and the neglect of the qualitative approaches is born out of the self-evident lack of history of research methods as well as the epistemological undertones underpinning research conduct. Important issues resulting from this lack of knowledge of the historical antecedents surrounding the adoption of the various methods are highlighted in this article. While concluding that the revelations here are not idle ones, this paper noted that unless issues are looked at from both sides of the coin, research within the Nigeria research tradition as well as in any other tradition where such problems exist will not only appear too didactic but could be made to appear as speculative and as deceptive as findings from such enterprise