Necessary and Irreconcilable Differences: Paradigms within the Field of Reading

This commentary uses Thomas Kuhn’s work to provide a new perspective on the “Reading Wars,” one which suggest that disagreements within the field of reading are “both necessary and irreconcilable” and need not be ignored or glossed over in a search for “common ground.” Rival paradigms represent incommensurable ways of seeing the world, differing in beliefs about what reading is and what counts as evidence. Masking differences behind terms like “balanced,”or “comprehensive,” or some other new label, invites an abandonment of theory.