ABSTRACT
Anna’s preference is to say that we teach research, and more specifically, educational research. Aaron is more comfortable saying that we teach about research, or that we teach approaches to or methods of research. In this view, research is a set of practices developed by professional communities of researchers, typically discipline-based, thus representing a way of inquiring unique to that discipline. Instructors can lead with the idea that research entails judgment. Another way to say this is that while researchers need to have deep knowledge of the purpose of research, its designs and methods, the various phases of the research process, and the substantive content of their discipline or field, they also must be able to make sound, thoughtful, and balanced judgments about what to do in situations that cannot always be spelled out in advance. Education researchers are constantly making decisions, and these decisions rest on their judgments about the merits and consequences of various alternatives.
