ABSTRACT
The aim of this chapter is to connect irony to educational research, with a particular focus on the educational researcher. The reason being that educational research is increasingly dominated by the belief in reliable information and evidence, which I henceforth refer to as the omniscience in education research. Irony, so I shall argue, can unsettle a researcher’s certain belief in reliable information and evidence. My argument is based on the fact that irony goes two ways. On the one hand, irony goes from sender to receiver. The irony points outwards and has an effect on the recipient or the thing (e.g. a research paper, a movie, work of drama) that is put under the ironic lens. On the other hand, irony returns, it points inwards and has an effect on the sender. As part of the argument, I will provide some concrete examples of how ironic indirectness can be used, both before, during and after certain processes within the education research.
