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Abstract This paper examines the invention of school effectiveness as a specific curriculum and pedagogic discourse that has captured not only the hearts and minds of a body of educational researchers but also of policy-makers and politicians from different parts of the political spectrum. It is divided into three parts. First it explores previously identified questions surrounding the methodology and its underlying epistemological assumptions; second, it considers the politics of school effectiveness research and in particular the political context for the publication of the book School Effectiveness for Whom ? published in 1998; third, it reflects upon dilemmas that confront inclusive education research and how these may suggest similar considerations for school effectiveness research. It concludes with the argument that the most important question today for school effectiveness researchers and other researchers who wish for a more inclusive school system is to disentangle the concept of efficiency from effectiveness and to review their thinking about whom schools are most ‘effective’ for.
Slee et al. (Thu,) studied this question.