Educational research and its standing as science

Summary Educational research is intended to provide objective, scientific knowledge. Why is it that so many of its findings fail to appear convincing or relevant to those who are directly involved in education? It is suggested that many research studies employ a specious view of science, as a result of which important problems are often trivialized. Also some of the techniques of inquiry commonly used involve counter-educational assumptions. Thus a ‘false consciousness˚s about education tends to be generated, and many substantive issues are obscured or neglected. Three positive propositions are put forward. First, that research must be centrally concerned with education itself; second, that the conception of the human being implicit in research must be one in which human powers are acknowledged; third, that fresh standards of acceptability must be established, based on a more intelligent understanding of the nature, scope, and limits of scientific inquiry.