ABSTRACT
From the discussions of the previous three chapters, it is now possible to identify some of the formal requirements that any approach to educational theory needs to accept First, following the criticisms of positivism made in Chapter 2, it is apparent that educational theory must reject positivist notions of rationality, objectivity and truth. In particular, the positivist idea that knowledge has a purely instrumental value in solving educational problems and the consequent tendency to see all educational issues as technical in character needs to be firmly resisted. Secondly, following what was said in Chapter 3 about the importance of grasping the meanings that educational practices have for those who perform them, educational theory must accept the need to employ the interpretive categories of teachers. Indeed, the arguments of Chapter 3 suggest that for educational theory to have any subjectmatter at all, it must be rooted in the self-understandings of educational practitioners.
