ABSTRACT
Educationists and social scientists are concerned not only for ‘what works’ but ‘why’, ‘how’, ‘for whom’ and ‘under what conditions and circumstances’. They want to predict what will happen if such-and-such an intervention is introduced, and how and why it will produce a particular effect. This points us to an important feature of educational research, which is to look for causation: what are the effects of causes and what are the causes of effects? This is not a straightforward enterprise, not least because causation is not often observable but can only be inferred, and it is highly unlikely that indisputable causality is ever completely discoverable in the social sciences. At best probabilistic causation offers a more fitting characterization of causation in educational research. Causation is often considered to be the ‘holy grail’ of educational research, and this chapter introduces some key considerations in investigating causation.
