ABSTRACT
In The Netherlands, educational research is under attack because of a political shift in priorities. Research policy development has reached stalemate. In the recent past, the policy for the improvement of educational research was constructed on two supporting strategies. One strategy was intended to bring the stakeholders together in the national agency's (SVO) council and to place them in charge of a nation-wide programming process. This resulted in a legal statute defining the rules and confirming SVO in a broker position. The other main strategic line emphasized the ‘institutionalization’ of the research work. This was partly necessary to compensate for shortcomings in the traditional university patterns, but it was also intended to improve standards, to guarantee the accumulation of knowledge and experience, and to organize activities in accordance with a customer-contractor principle. The political uncertainty described above, and other policy dilemmas, stem from a mistaken understanding of the relationship between research, practice and policy in education. The ‘enlightenment’ theory is not sufficiently taken into consideration. Evaluation research is at present under particularly heavy pressure. In this area what is required are macro-organizational measures, professional standards and the development of new models. In Dutch society the burden of education is growing heavier. This also results in an unstable situation in the area of research. Yet at the same time it also clarifies the challenge of future educational research.
