ABSTRACT
The utilitarian argument that educational research should contribute to the greatest good of the greatest number is well known and not really controversial, at least in the long term. This chapter argues that research is carried out in a social and political context. It develops the arguments: that educational research is concerned primarily with policy implementation rather than with policy development; that research can realistically try to influence the implementation of policy only if researchers are sensitive to the social and political context in which policy develops. The limitations of research in policy development are most starkly illustrated in our research on stress, health and satisfaction in primary schoolteachers. This project also illustrates why researchers spend more time on issues relevant to policy development, on which their findings will have little or no influence, than on policy implementation, where they stand at least a chance of a hearing.
