ABSTRACT
In planning a research project it is vital that key concepts associated with the topic of the research are adequately explored in the literature and defined by the researcher undertaking the project. Concepts are slippery and do not have clear or fixed meanings, and often researchers and others understand things in different ways. Therefore, it is critically important that key concepts are clarified. This also makes it more straightforward to plan the research. In addition to clarifying key concepts, it is important to draw on theories that have already been established and to relate these to your own research in order to ground the study in what is ‘already known’. This chapter considers what ‘theory’ is, and explains why it is important to explore theories that are relevant to one’s research. As the field is so vast, this chapter will concentrate on the use of social theory in educational research.
