ABSTRACT
British educational researchers are a relatively new breed. Although there is a rich tradition of writers, like Arnold of Rugby, addressing educational ideas, it is only in the last thirty or so years that educational research-as distinct from psychological, sociological or even psychiatric studies-has been funded from public sources and that the results of studies have begun to influence what goes on in schools. (A lucid account of developments through this time can be read in Shipman, 1985). Even so, it is sometimes difficult to identify clearly what makes up an ‘educational research study’ and to distinguish this from similar studies carried out in the general area of the social sciences. This is because educational researchers usually have taken their degrees in other subjects and have frequently worked in different traditions. It is a strength, in my view, of education that it can draw on the methods and concepts of other disciplines and that it can adopt-as appropriate-their perspectives, paradigms and theories.
