ABSTRACT
Not many academics communicate directly with the profession or the public, preferring to write in books and research articles. This collection of articles from the national newspapers shows how I have conveyed my own research and enquiry to a wide professional and lay audience, sometimes syndicated on all over the world. The first two articles were written in the Guardian in 1978, an attempt to summarise what was happening in education for a lay audience. ‘Don’s Diary’ told of my research trip to the USA, a formative experience in 1978, while ‘Why don’t your teachers riot?’ explained to New Statesman readers what awaited British academics trying in vain to explain some of our government’s madder policies to foreigners. The next two pieces translate research findings into prose for the interested teacher: class-management research and a study of boys’ under-achievement in literacy, the results of which were reported all over the world. The next piece is an internet polemic about why practical intelligence is unappreciated and the final article tells the inside story of being a researcher.
