Format research: on the epistemic effects of changing forms and formats in education research

Currently, a narrative of the digital producing a fundamentally new world is taking hold. Against this backdrop, we explore three domains in education research (doing research, research on learning, and publishing) to establish what has genuinely changed and is new. From a history of education and a history of knowledge perspective, we examine how knowledge is produced as stable in each domain. We propose the concept of small forms and formats as heuristics to address these epistemological questions and to challenge the narrative of a fundamentally new world in education (research), as we argue that despite changing dynamics in the digital present no fundamental epistemological shift can be observed.