ABSTRACT
The chapter argues that there are certain advantages in being an insider, especially one who adopts an eclectic and open attitude to differing research methods. It suggests that often research can be most fruitful when both the major research methods - the quantitative and the qualitative - are utilized. The main purpose of the research in question was to try to determine what factors made for the successful implementation of educational policy. Two phases of the research can be distinguished. The first phase was a questionnaire survey of adult returners taking courses in new technology, producing quantitative data. The second phase was to interview, in-depth, three groups of people: the policy makers; the central staff of the Open College; and the principals and coordinators in the institutions. The Open College was aimed at the groups who had benefited least from the educational system - the working class, women and ethnic minority groups.
