ABSTRACT
This chapter endeavours to tease out some of the main questions raised by suggestions that the field of practice research may, indeed must, develop some kind of corresponding structure. It intertwines with those raised in the chapters on collaborative partnerships and on developing practice research capacity. The chapter starts by recapping some of the recent work on the development and nature of practice research, and in particular the diversity of research forms that co-exist, not necessarily comfortably, under its rubric. In terms of research methodology, practitioner-led studies were predominantly qualitative, whereas partnership studies gave greater weight to quantitative methods and measurement scales. By contrast, practitioner-led studies encompassed a mix of writing styles, but in general they gave less attention to mapping their research into academic conceptual, theoretical or methodological frames of reference.
