Conducting Educational Researc – serie

"This is an exceptional book - and one that should be essential reading for anyone seriously thinking about educational practice - for two reasons. First, it is one of the few books on thinking about education which is written with the wit and humour which makes compulsive reading. Second, the approach to theory (or thinking systematically, philosophically and evidentially) is through the author's own attempt to understand what appears to many as a mystery. In this personal journey, the author provides a comprehensive and critical review of different theoretical positions."Professor Richard Pring, University of Oxford

This compelling book examines what theory means for both student and researcher and questions whether the confidence in educational theory is justified. It begins by looking at what theory is, and what use it has in education and examines some theoretically significant influences on educational thought and practice in the twentieth century. Challenging the idea that the practice of education should be based on theory, the author offers alternative, simpler frameworks for conducting inquiry, without the constraints of existing theory, contending that it is time for a discussion about how values, evidence and ideas can more straightforwardly guide educational practice.

Education and Theory is stimulating reading for academics, researchers, teachers and students of education.

"In this timely and important contribution, Stephen Gorard and Chris Taylor help us move beyond the wasteful schism of 'qualitative versus quantitative' research by offering sound basic theorising and extensive practical illustration of the combining of research methods... I see their book as essential reading for anyone concerned for effective educational and social research."Professor Peter Tomlinson, University of Leeds

There is growing interest in the possibilities of combining research approaches in education and social sciences, as dissatisfaction mounts with the limitations of traditional mono-method studies and with the schism between quantitative and qualitative methods.

This book argues the case for combining multiple research methods, and provides much-needed practical guidance for researchers who want to use this mixed-methods approach. The authors believe that all research has an over-arching logic and that, within this, the fruitful combination of quantitative and qualitative methods is possible. They develop the idea of the ‘new’ education and social researcher, for whom the combination of approaches is a representation of a diverse skills base, rather than a matter of ideological or theoretical allegiance.The book outlines and evaluates methods that are currently used, and looks at combining different methods across and within studies, including complex interventions, Bayesian approaches, new political arithmetic, triangulation, life histories and design studies. It offers a radical, new and very simple way of working with numbers.

Drawing on examples across the social sciences, this book is key reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students in Education and social science courses with a research element, as well as academics and professionals undertaking research projects.

The movement to evidence-based practice in education is as important as it is controversial, and this book explores the arguments of leading advocates and critics.The book begins with an explication of evidence-based practice. Some of the ideas of its proponents are discussed, including the Campbell Collaboration, and the application to education of Cochrane-style reviews and meta-analyses. The thinking behind evidence based practice has been the subject of much criticism, particularly in education, and this criticism is aired in the second part of the book. Questions have been raised about what we mean by evidence, about how particular kinds of evidence may be privileged over other kinds of evidence, about the transferability of research findings to practice, and about the consequences of a move to evidence-based practice for governance in education. Given that the origins of the interest in evidence-based practice come largely from its use in medicine, questions arise about the validity of the transposition, and contributors to the third part of the book address this transposition. The issues raised in the book, while primarily those raised by educators, are of relevance also to professionals in medicine, social work and psychology.