ABSTRACT
In the social sciences at any rate, it seldom takes long for the new to grow old. For instance, the recent proliferation of interpretive studies of the classroom was one of the ‘new directions’ in the sociology of education listed by Young (1971). This trend has been with us for approximately a decade, and already there is talk of its obsolescence and, hence, of its fall from grace in the scientific community. Only seven years later Delamont (1978) made an eloquent plea for a stay of execution of this fledgling. After all, it is a mere child in educational research, when compared with the other approaches followed there. Certainly it is deserving of an extended life so that we may see what its maturity will bring.
