ABSTRACT
As a doctoral student preparing my dissertation project on the socialization of student teachers (Templin, 1978), I was certain I had reviewed all the pertinent literature in the field of education and cognate areas. The study went off without a hitch and was even recognized as ‘award winning’ by my alma mater. It was shortly after receiving such accolades that I discovered a study (Lacey, 1977) that ultimately became one of the seminal references in research on teacher socialization. Had I discovered this iconic work at the time, it would have transformed my dissertation theoretically and it would have altered the lenses through which I analysed my data. While my oversight was unintended and probably not all that surprising ‘back in the day’ when search databases were limited, it did teach me a huge lesson: try to turn over every relevant stone when searching the literature.
