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Abstract: With the transition to a knowledge economy, research methodology has become an important part of the curricula of higher education. However, teaching business research methodology involves several distinct difficulties. For instance, many methods and approaches, which crosses disciplines, fields and subject matters fall under the category. The subject, thus, resists any simple definition or description. As a consequence, lecturers face a problem of what to teach. It is an impossible task to design a single course or module that covers the whole field of research methodology. Another albeit related problem is how to teach business research methodology. Textbooks have tended to be dominated by instrumental or technical rationality and thus to treat research methodology as the application of methods to technical problems. However, the problem with 'methods' books is that the methods are presented for application as stand-alone procedures, apparently independent of the conceptual and practical issues that arise from studying the actual sites of the events under study. Hence, many textbooks and course descriptions are rooted in an underlying and largely unexamined epistemology of research according to which researchers solve well-formed research problems by applying the theories and techniques of research methodology. In other words, researchers are instrumental problem solvers who select technical means best suited to particular research purposes and projects. In this paper, I will argue that research competence could and should be something more and something else than instrumental competence. Based on a pragmatic reading of Batesons logical categories of learning, I develop a conceptual framework for research competencies in higher education, which highlight that research competence development could and should not limit itself to instrumental competencies. This framework highlights the importance of both instrumentality and contextually in research. Based on a pragmatic reading and further development of Bateson's logical categories of learning, the paper develops a conceptual framework for competence development in management education, and higher education in general, which includes not only instrumental, but also practical, analytical and critical competencies. The paper develops a conceptual typology of research methodology competencies in higher education, which pinpoints different logical levels of business research methodology that can serve to organise teaching and learning activities. The typology identifies not only instrumental, but also practical, paradigmatic and philosophical competencies
Keywords: research competencies,...