ABSTRACT
This chapter provides definitions and explanations of different areas within educational research. The chapter also shows that there are both direct and indirect actions between the different areas. From this background, I argue that educational researchers should be aware that direct and indirect actions related to educational research can have both beneficial and unfavourable consequences. For example, examining educational practice indirectly through sociology does not in itself generate educational knowledge. First and foremost it generates sociological knowledge, which can be seen as an indirect source of knowledge in that it needs to go through a process of indirectness, meaning that it should be translated into educational knowledge. Furthermore, the chapter shows that educational knowledge and theory can be produced directly from education. However, this knowledge or theory that is extracted from within the field of practice is weak because it is not sufficiently examined. Therefore I argue that educational practice must also be examined indirectly; the knowledge generated from within practice must be verified. This is a form of indirectness because the researcher at this stage does not have direct access to educational practice, but only access to the knowledge or weak theory that is derived from educational practice. Through this form of indirectness and verification process, one can, so I argue, produce educational theory in a strong sense. Overall, one can show that education has something unique to offer research in and on educational practice, while strengthening education as an autonomous and self-governing discipline.
