Educational Research – serie

Education and educational research, according to the current fashion, are supposed to be concerned with ‘what works’, to the exclusion of all other considerations. All over the world, and particularly in the English-speaking countries, governments look for means of improving ‘student achievement’ as measured by standardized test scores. Although such improvements are often to be welcomed, they do not answer all significant questions about what constitutes good education. Also the research on which they are based is not the only legitimate way to do educational research. Social research, and therefore educational research, cannot ignore the distinctive nature of what it studies: a social activity where questions of meaning and value cannot be eliminated, and where interpretation and judgment play a crucial role.In this book distinguished philosophers and historians of education from 6 countries focus on the problematical nature of the search for ‘what works’ in educational contexts, in practice as well as in theory. Beginning with specific problems, they move on to more general and theoretical considerations, seeking to go beyond over-simple ideas about cause and effect and the rhetoric of performativity that currently has educational thinking in its grip. ‘Freedom of inquiry in educational research can no longer be taken for granted. Narrow definitions of what constitutes ‘scientific’ research, funding criteria that enforce particular research methods, and policy decision processes that ignore any research that is not narrowly utilitarian, create a context in many countries that discourages scholarship of a more speculative, exploratory, or critical sort. This book brings together an exceptional combination of international and cross-disciplinary scholars who bring the perspectives of history and philosophy of science to ask, ‘How did we arrive at this place? and ‘Where is educational research heading? Thebook illuminates the anti-intellectual consequences of a ‘what works’ mentality in education, and shows that the ostensibly ‘scientific’ revolution in educational research in fact reflects an ahistorical and conceptually muddled understanding of what actually constitutes ‘science.’ This book could not be more timely and important.’Nicholas C. Burbules, Grayce Wicall Gauthier Professor, University of Illinois‘With research increasingly tied to State policies with the instrumental purpose of guiding school reforms, the volume provides an important historical and philosophical questioning of the possibilities, limitations and challenges of education research. Internationally leading scholars engage in a significant conversation that is sophisticated and nuanced for understanding contemporary debates.’ Thomas S. Popkewitz, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USAThis publication is realized by the Research Community (FWO-Vlaanderen / Research Foundation Flanders, Belgium) Philosophy and History of the Discipline of Education. Evaluation and Evolution of the Criteria for Educational Reseach.

PAUL SMEYERS AND MARC DEPAEPE THE FRAMEWORK OF THE COLLABORATIVE PROJECT This is the third book that resulted from the close collaboration within the Research Community ‘Philosophy and History of the Discipline of Education: Evaluation and Evolution of the Criteria for Educational Research’, established by the Research Foun- 1 dation Flanders, Belgium (Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek – Vlaanderen). From the beginning, the aim of the network has been to combine research c- cerning the history and nature of the discipline with the science of education. Clarification, evaluation and justification of the different modes and paradigms of educational research are thus taken into account. The academics involved in this network share the belief that there is a place within the discipline of education for so-called foundationalist approaches. This is not, however, to answer a need for a (new) foundation, but to systematically study a particular area from a discipli- oriented stance. The essays, published in 2003 under the title Beyond Empiricism: On Criteria for Educational Research (Smeyers and Depaepe, 2003), bear witness to the belief that educational theory cannot help but go beyond empirical educational research to provide a real understanding of education as a human practice. Edu- tional research is discussed respectively as a social discourse, as a discursive practice, in relation to epistemological issues and in the light of questions of ethics.

Pushing ‘social’ responsibilities on schools is a process that has been underway for a long time. This phenomenon has been studied more in Europe than in North America and the U.K. and has been labelled Pädagogisierung. The editors have chosen to use ‘Educationalization’ to identify the overall orientation or trend toward thinking about education as the focal point for addressing or solving larger human problems. The term describes these phenomena as a sub-process of the ‘modernization’ of society, but it also has negative connotations, such as increased dependence, patronization, and pampering. In this book distinguished philosophers and historians of education focus on ‘educationalization’ to expand its meaning through an engagement with educational theory. Topics discussed are the family and the child, the ‘learning society’, citizenship education, widening participation in higher education, progressive education, and schooling movements such as No Child Left Behind.‘Smeyers’ and Depaepe's book offers great insights into one of the most ambivalent phenomena of today's educational world and especially educational policy. The contributions assembled represent perspectives of some of the most respected scholars in the field. Their manifold critiques of the educationalization of social problems are rather convincing. Our time is definitely ripe for such analysis!’Roland Reichenbach, Center for Educational Studies, University of Basel, Switzerland‘This is a challenging, critical and analytical treatment of the tendency of contemporary administrations to overburden educational institutions with the expectation that they will provide the solutions to an increasingly diverse range of social and economic problems.  It brings together the theoretical resources of a distinguished international group of philosophers and historians of education and deserves the carefulattention of educational policy makers, practitioners and researchers alike.’David Bridges, Von Hügel Institute, St Edmund’s College, Cambridge, EnglandThis publication is realized by the Research Community (FWO-Vlaanderen / Research Foundation Flanders, Belgium) Philosophy and History of the Discipline of Education: Evaluation and Evolution of the Criteria for Educational Research. Also realized by the Research Community are Educational Research: Why ‘What Works’ Doesn’t Work (2006) and Educational Research: Networks and Technologies (2007).

This book examines the conduct and purposes of educational research. It looks at values of researchers, at whose interests are served by the research, and the inclusion or exclusion of practitioners and subjects of research. It asks if educational research should be explicitly committed to promoting equality and inclusion, and whether that requires research to be more aware of the cultural and global contexts of research questions. It explores the ethical challenges encountered in the conduct of research and the potential ethical and social justice constraints imposed by comparative research rankings. Next, it discusses the research funding aspects of the above issues both philosophically and historically, thus examining the changing sources, patterns, and effects of educational research funding over time. Since the conduct of most educational research increasingly requires institutional and financial support, the question is whether funding shapes the content of research, andwhat counts as research. The book discusses if funding is a factor in the shift of efforts of researchers from pure or basic research to more applied research, and if it encourages the development of large research teams, to the detriment of individual scholars. It looks at the ownership of the content, results, and data of publicly funded research. Finally, it tries to establish whether scholars solicit funding to support research projects, or generate research projects to attract funding.  This publication, as well as the ones that are mentioned in the preliminary pages of this work, were realized by the Research Community Philosophy and History of the Discipline of Education: Purposes, Projects, and Practices of Educational Research.

This collection discusses and illustrates how educational research is affected by the economic, institutional and physical contingencies of its time, and in our time even increasingly is driven by them. It is argued that the antidote to this is, however, not to aspire to ‘thought itself’, but instead to do justice to its own rootedness in the ‘material’, including textuality. From an historical point of view such an innovative approach can itself revamp the material scholarly culture and the way it is represented. The chapters address a variety of topics such as the cultural heritage of the school desk, the significance of images for research into long-term educational processes, the way iconic signs function, and how modes of enquiry relate to the materiality of education. Attention is also given to standards for reporting on educational research studies and how these limit the scope and communication and moreover shape researchers, to the forms of citation practices as substantially influencing methods and content, and to the centrality of conversation not just as the means to an end but as what matters; further to representational and to non-representational theories for educational research. Some examples are drawn from the area of arts-based educational research, from mathematics education, and from the discourse on universities.

This collection addresses concepts and theories of change, contexts and functions of reform discourses, and fields of change in educational research. It examines a wide variety of issues such as girls’ education in France, educational neuroscience, the professionalization in Child Protection, and mathematics discourses. It pays attention to the pervasiveness of crisis rhetoric in American Education Research, to the current university climate, and to perspectives for teacher education. The volume presents in-depth studies that integrate the perspective of history and philosophy of education.Educational research has been typically carried out within a discourse of change: changing educational practice, changing policy, or changing the world. Sometimes these expectations have been grand, as in claims of emancipation; sometimes they have been more modest, as in research as a support for specific reforms. This book explores the answers to such questions as: Are these expectations justified? How have these discourses of change themselves changed over time? What have researchers meant by change, and related concepts such as reform, improvement, innovation, progress and the new? Does this teleological and hopeful discourse itself reflect a particular historical and national/cultural point of view? Is it over promising for educational research to claim to solve social problems, and are these properly understood as educational problems? In doing so, it challenges prevailing ideas about the application of philosophy and history of education, and demonstrates the relevance of philosophical and historical approaches for the practice and theory of education and for educational research.This publication, as well as the ones that are mentioned in the preliminary pages of this work, were realized by the Research Community (FWO Vlaanderen / Research Foundation Flanders, Belgium) Philosophy and History of the Discipline of Education: Faces and Spaces of Educational Research.

This collection discusses and illustrates how educational research is affected by the economic, institutional and physical contingencies of its time, and in our time even increasingly is driven by them. It is argued that the antidote to this is, however, not to aspire to ‘thought itself’, but instead to do justice to its own rootedness in the ‘material’, including textuality. From an historical point of view such an innovative approach can itself revamp the material scholarly culture and the way it is represented. The chapters address a variety of topics such as the cultural heritage of the school desk, the significance of images for research into long-term educational processes, the way iconic signs function, and how modes of enquiry relate to the materiality of education. Attention is also given to standards for reporting on educational research studies and how these limit the scope and communication and moreover shape researchers, to the forms of citation practices as substantially influencing methods and content, and to the centrality of conversation not just as the means to an end but as what matters; further to representational and to non-representational theories for educational research. Some examples are drawn from the area of arts-based educational research, from mathematics education, and from the discourse on universities.

This book examines the conduct and purposes of educational research. It looks at values of researchers, at whose interests are served by the research, and the inclusion or exclusion of practitioners and subjects of research. It asks if educational research should be explicitly committed to promoting equality and inclusion, and whether that requires research to be more aware of the cultural and global contexts of research questions. It explores the ethical challenges encountered in the conduct of research and the potential ethical and social justice constraints imposed by comparative research rankings. Next, it discusses the research funding aspects of the above issues both philosophically and historically, thus examining the changing sources, patterns, and effects of educational research funding over time. Since the conduct of most educational research increasingly requires institutional and financial support, the question is whether funding shapes the content of research, andwhat counts as research. The book discusses if funding is a factor in the shift of efforts of researchers from pure or basic research to more applied research, and if it encourages the development of large research teams, to the detriment of individual scholars. It looks at the ownership of the content, results, and data of publicly funded research. Finally, it tries to establish whether scholars solicit funding to support research projects, or generate research projects to attract funding.  This publication, as well as the ones that are mentioned in the preliminary pages of this work, were realized by the Research Community Philosophy and History of the Discipline of Education: Purposes, Projects, and Practices of Educational Research.

This collection addresses concepts and theories of change, contexts and functions of reform discourses, and fields of change in educational research. It examines a wide variety of issues such as girls’ education in France, educational neuroscience, the professionalization in Child Protection, and mathematics discourses. It pays attention to the pervasiveness of crisis rhetoric in American Education Research, to the current university climate, and to perspectives for teacher education. The volume presents in-depth studies that integrate the perspective of history and philosophy of education.Educational research has been typically carried out within a discourse of change: changing educational practice, changing policy, or changing the world. Sometimes these expectations have been grand, as in claims of emancipation; sometimes they have been more modest, as in research as a support for specific reforms. This book explores the answers to such questions as: Are these expectations justified? How have these discourses of change themselves changed over time? What have researchers meant by change, and related concepts such as reform, improvement, innovation, progress and the new? Does this teleological and hopeful discourse itself reflect a particular historical and national/cultural point of view? Is it over promising for educational research to claim to solve social problems, and are these properly understood as educational problems? In doing so, it challenges prevailing ideas about the application of philosophy and history of education, and demonstrates the relevance of philosophical and historical approaches for the practice and theory of education and for educational research.This publication, as well as the ones that are mentioned in the preliminary pages of this work, were realized by the Research Community (FWO Vlaanderen / Research Foundation Flanders, Belgium) Philosophy and History of the Discipline of Education: Faces and Spaces of Educational Research.

This book focuses on the language of educational research as well as on the language of education. It conceives both as social practices and investigates how rhetoric plays a part in the complex process of historically situated argumentation. The book aims to answer such questions as: ‘What is the nature of the arguments and the kinds of sources one relies on?’ and ‘What kind of reasoning is offered to convince practitioners?’ Taking postmodern criticism seriously, the contributors argue that the scholar or researcher cannot indulge in relativism or be satisfied with a description of particular cases. Instead, theoreticians as well as practitioners have to engage in sound thinking and dialogue. The chapters in this volume highlight relevant characteristics of the language of educational research. In addition, attention is paid to the language of particular debates which figure prominently in the wider educational context, such as the language of goals, of parenting, citizenship and capability.

Education and educational research, according to the current fashion, are supposed to be concerned with ‘what works’, to the exclusion of all other considerations. All over the world, and particularly in the English-speaking countries, governments look for means of improving ‘student achievement’ as measured by standardized test scores. Although such improvements are often to be welcomed, they do not answer all significant questions about what constitutes good education. Also the research on which they are based is not the only legitimate way to do educational research. Social research, and therefore educational research, cannot ignore the distinctive nature of what it studies: a social activity where questions of meaning and value cannot be eliminated, and where interpretation and judgment play a crucial role.In this book distinguished philosophers and historians of education from 6 countries focus on the problematical nature of the search for ‘what works’ in educational contexts, in practice as well as in theory. Beginning with specific problems, they move on to more general and theoretical considerations, seeking to go beyond over-simple ideas about cause and effect and the rhetoric of performativity that currently has educational thinking in its grip. ‘Freedom of inquiry in educational research can no longer be taken for granted. Narrow definitions of what constitutes ‘scientific’ research, funding criteria that enforce particular research methods, and policy decision processes that ignore any research that is not narrowly utilitarian, create a context in many countries that discourages scholarship of a more speculative, exploratory, or critical sort. This book brings together an exceptional combination of international and cross-disciplinary scholars who bring the perspectives of history and philosophy of science to ask, ‘How did we arrive at this place? and ‘Where is educational research heading? Thebook illuminates the anti-intellectual consequences of a ‘what works’ mentality in education, and shows that the ostensibly ‘scientific’ revolution in educational research in fact reflects an ahistorical and conceptually muddled understanding of what actually constitutes ‘science.’ This book could not be more timely and important.’Nicholas C. Burbules, Grayce Wicall Gauthier Professor, University of Illinois‘With research increasingly tied to State policies with the instrumental purpose of guiding school reforms, the volume provides an important historical and philosophical questioning of the possibilities, limitations and challenges of education research. Internationally leading scholars engage in a significant conversation that is sophisticated and nuanced for understanding contemporary debates.’ Thomas S. Popkewitz, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USAThis publication is realized by the Research Community (FWO-Vlaanderen / Research Foundation Flanders, Belgium) Philosophy and History of the Discipline of Education. Evaluation and Evolution of the Criteria for Educational Reseach.

PAUL SMEYERS AND MARC DEPAEPE THE FRAMEWORK OF THE COLLABORATIVE PROJECT This is the third book that resulted from the close collaboration within the Research Community ‘Philosophy and History of the Discipline of Education: Evaluation and Evolution of the Criteria for Educational Research’, established by the Research Foun- 1 dation Flanders, Belgium (Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek – Vlaanderen). From the beginning, the aim of the network has been to combine research c- cerning the history and nature of the discipline with the science of education. Clarification, evaluation and justification of the different modes and paradigms of educational research are thus taken into account. The academics involved in this network share the belief that there is a place within the discipline of education for so-called foundationalist approaches. This is not, however, to answer a need for a (new) foundation, but to systematically study a particular area from a discipli- oriented stance. The essays, published in 2003 under the title Beyond Empiricism: On Criteria for Educational Research (Smeyers and Depaepe, 2003), bear witness to the belief that educational theory cannot help but go beyond empirical educational research to provide a real understanding of education as a human practice. Edu- tional research is discussed respectively as a social discourse, as a discursive practice, in relation to epistemological issues and in the light of questions of ethics.

Pushing ‘social’ responsibilities on schools is a process that has been underway for a long time. This phenomenon has been studied more in Europe than in North America and the U.K. and has been labelled Pädagogisierung. The editors have chosen to use ‘Educationalization’ to identify the overall orientation or trend toward thinking about education as the focal point for addressing or solving larger human problems. The term describes these phenomena as a sub-process of the ‘modernization’ of society, but it also has negative connotations, such as increased dependence, patronization, and pampering. In this book distinguished philosophers and historians of education focus on ‘educationalization’ to expand its meaning through an engagement with educational theory. Topics discussed are the family and the child, the ‘learning society’, citizenship education, widening participation in higher education, progressive education, and schooling movements such as No Child Left Behind.‘Smeyers’ and Depaepe's book offers great insights into one of the most ambivalent phenomena of today's educational world and especially educational policy. The contributions assembled represent perspectives of some of the most respected scholars in the field. Their manifold critiques of the educationalization of social problems are rather convincing. Our time is definitely ripe for such analysis!’Roland Reichenbach, Center for Educational Studies, University of Basel, Switzerland‘This is a challenging, critical and analytical treatment of the tendency of contemporary administrations to overburden educational institutions with the expectation that they will provide the solutions to an increasingly diverse range of social and economic problems.  It brings together the theoretical resources of a distinguished international group of philosophers and historians of education and deserves the carefulattention of educational policy makers, practitioners and researchers alike.’David Bridges, Von Hügel Institute, St Edmund’s College, Cambridge, EnglandThis publication is realized by the Research Community (FWO-Vlaanderen / Research Foundation Flanders, Belgium) Philosophy and History of the Discipline of Education: Evaluation and Evolution of the Criteria for Educational Research. Also realized by the Research Community are Educational Research: Why ‘What Works’ Doesn’t Work (2006) and Educational Research: Networks and Technologies (2007).

Statistics are everywhere. Their power and their undoubted efficacy in many areas have given rise to faith in measurement and metrics. More of them will tell us all that we need to know. Their use carries with it a number of presuppositions: that reality can be satisfactorily represented and that it can be controlled or the risks managed. The papers in this book interpret the ethics and aesthetics of statistics in terms of representation, visualisation and accessibility, focus on the appeal of ‘simplicity’, of technical languages, numbers, diagrams and pictures, and pay attention to their connection with action plans. The book explores what has made educational researchers dependent on statistics, and deals with their use in areas such as the prevalence of maltreatment of children, European citizenship, well-being and happiness, illegal migrants, and university expansion. There is discussion of how the quest for more and better statistics finds its voice in policy initiatives that become slogans, and how public opinion polls are used to rationalise political decision-making. Can a more limited and modest use be made of statistics which does not deflect attention away from education’s core business and which does not destroy the local practical knowledge that on which good education is based?‘Smeyers and Depaepe continue to bring together a significant international group of educational philosophers and historians on topics of importance to researchers. This fifth volume in their series takes up the ‘gold standard’ use of statistics in case studies not contributed elsewhere. I highly recommend this text to counter a current over-emphasis on technique in research methodology. Use of statistics remains but herein under new, insightful conceptualizations.’Lynda Stone, Philosophy of Education, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA‘Once again, Depaepe and Smeyers succeeded in bringing together distinguished international andcross-disciplinary scholars exploring very timely and critical issues in current educational research. This is a groundbreaking book on a theme that can’t be ignored by educational researchers and those interested in a better understanding of the culture of science and science as culture. Moreover, the present book instigates to study history of educationalresearch, a limited but developing field, and invites reflection to those who are sometimes too reliant on number crunching as a mode of interpretation and rather credulous in the acceptance of institutional records.Frank Simon, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Ghent University, Belgium

This book focuses on the language of educational research as well as on the language of education. It conceives both as social practices and investigates how rhetoric plays a part in the complex process of historically situated argumentation. The book aims to answer such questions as: ‘What is the nature of the arguments and the kinds of sources one relies on?’ and ‘What kind of reasoning is offered to convince practitioners?’ Taking postmodern criticism seriously, the contributors argue that the scholar or researcher cannot indulge in relativism or be satisfied with a description of particular cases. Instead, theoreticians as well as practitioners have to engage in sound thinking and dialogue. The chapters in this volume highlight relevant characteristics of the language of educational research. In addition, attention is paid to the language of particular debates which figure prominently in the wider educational context, such as the language of goals, of parenting, citizenship and capability.

Statistics are everywhere. Their power and their undoubted efficacy in many areas have given rise to faith in measurement and metrics. More of them will tell us all that we need to know. Their use carries with it a number of presuppositions: that reality can be satisfactorily represented and that it can be controlled or the risks managed. The papers in this book interpret the ethics and aesthetics of statistics in terms of representation, visualisation and accessibility, focus on the appeal of ‘simplicity’, of technical languages, numbers, diagrams and pictures, and pay attention to their connection with action plans. The book explores what has made educational researchers dependent on statistics, and deals with their use in areas such as the prevalence of maltreatment of children, European citizenship, well-being and happiness, illegal migrants, and university expansion. There is discussion of how the quest for more and better statistics finds its voice in policy initiatives that become slogans, and how public opinion polls are used to rationalise political decision-making. Can a more limited and modest use be made of statistics which does not deflect attention away from education’s core business and which does not destroy the local practical knowledge that on which good education is based?‘Smeyers and Depaepe continue to bring together a significant international group of educational philosophers and historians on topics of importance to researchers. This fifth volume in their series takes up the ‘gold standard’ use of statistics in case studies not contributed elsewhere. I highly recommend this text to counter a current over-emphasis on technique in research methodology. Use of statistics remains but herein under new, insightful conceptualizations.’Lynda Stone, Philosophy of Education, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA‘Once again, Depaepe and Smeyers succeeded in bringing together distinguished international andcross-disciplinary scholars exploring very timely and critical issues in current educational research. This is a groundbreaking book on a theme that can’t be ignored by educational researchers and those interested in a better understanding of the culture of science and science as culture. Moreover, the present book instigates to study history of educationalresearch, a limited but developing field, and invites reflection to those who are sometimes too reliant on number crunching as a mode of interpretation and rather credulous in the acceptance of institutional records.Frank Simon, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Ghent University, Belgium

The closely argued and provocative contributions to this volume challenge psychology’s hegemony as an interpretive paradigm in a range of social contexts such as education and child development. They start from the core observation that modern psychology has successfully penetrated numerous domains of society in its quest to develop a properly scientific methodology for analyzing the human mind and behaviour. For example, educational psychology continues to hold a central position in the curricula of trainee teachers in the US, while the language of developmental psychology holds primal sway over our understanding of childrearing and the parent-child relationship.Questioning the default position of modern psychology as a way of conceptualizing human relations, this collection of papers reexamines key assumptions that include psychology’s self-image as a ‘scientific’ discipline. Authors also argue that the dogma of neuropsychology in education has demoted concepts such as ‘emotion’, ‘feeling’ and ‘relationship’, so that they are now ’blind spots’ in educational theory. Other chapters offer a cautionary analysis of how misshapen notions of psychology can legitimize eugenics (as in Nazi Germany) and poison racial attitudes. Above all, has psychology, with its focus on individual merit, been complicit in hiding the impacts of power and privilege in education? This bracing new volume adopts a broader definition of education and childrearing that admits the essential contribution of the humanities to the proper study of mankind.This publication, as well as the ones that are mentioned in the preliminary pages of this work, were realized by the Research Community (FWO Vlaanderen / Research Foundation Flanders, Belgium) Philosophy and History of the Discipline of Education: Faces and Spaces of Educational Research.

This collection of fresh analyses aims to map the links between educational theory and research, and the geographical and physical spaces in which teaching is practiced and discussed. The authors combine historical and philosophical perspectives in examining the differing institutional loci of education research, and also assess the potential and the limitations of each. The contributors trace the effects of ‘space’ on educational practice in the classroom, in the broader institutions, and in the academic discipline of education—doing so for a range of international contexts. The chapters address various topics relating to the physical and geographical environment. How, for example, does geographical space shape researchers’ mental frameworks? How did the learning environments in which young children are taught today evolve? To what extent did parochialism shape America’s higher education system? How can our understanding of classroom practice be enhanced by concepts of space? The book acknowledges that texts themselves, as well as the research ‘arena’, are ‘spaces’ too, and notes the fascinating debate on the concept of space in the field of mathematics education. Indeed, as more and more students move online, the book analyses the rising importance of virtual spaces such as Web 2.0, which have major educational implications for researchers and students joining the innovative ‘virtual’ universities of the future.This publication, as well as the ones that are mentioned in the preliminary pages of this work, were realized by the Research Community (FWO Vlaanderen / Research Foundation Flanders, Belgium) Philosophy and History of the Discipline of Education: Faces and Spaces of Educational Research.

This collection of fresh analyses aims to map the links between educational theory and research, and the geographical and physical spaces in which teaching is practiced and discussed. The authors combine historical and philosophical perspectives in examining the differing institutional loci of education research, and also assess the potential and the limitations of each. The contributors trace the effects of ‘space’ on educational practice in the classroom, in the broader institutions, and in the academic discipline of education—doing so for a range of international contexts. The chapters address various topics relating to the physical and geographical environment. How, for example, does geographical space shape researchers’ mental frameworks? How did the learning environments in which young children are taught today evolve? To what extent did parochialism shape America’s higher education system? How can our understanding of classroom practice be enhanced by concepts of space? The book acknowledges that texts themselves, as well as the research ‘arena’, are ‘spaces’ too, and notes the fascinating debate on the concept of space in the field of mathematics education. Indeed, as more and more students move online, the book analyses the rising importance of virtual spaces such as Web 2.0, which have major educational implications for researchers and students joining the innovative ‘virtual’ universities of the future.This publication, as well as the ones that are mentioned in the preliminary pages of this work, were realized by the Research Community (FWO Vlaanderen / Research Foundation Flanders, Belgium) Philosophy and History of the Discipline of Education: Faces and Spaces of Educational Research.

The closely argued and provocative contributions to this volume challenge psychology’s hegemony as an interpretive paradigm in a range of social contexts such as education and child development. They start from the core observation that modern psychology has successfully penetrated numerous domains of society in its quest to develop a properly scientific methodology for analyzing the human mind and behaviour. For example, educational psychology continues to hold a central position in the curricula of trainee teachers in the US, while the language of developmental psychology holds primal sway over our understanding of childrearing and the parent-child relationship.Questioning the default position of modern psychology as a way of conceptualizing human relations, this collection of papers reexamines key assumptions that include psychology’s self-image as a ‘scientific’ discipline. Authors also argue that the dogma of neuropsychology in education has demoted concepts such as ‘emotion’, ‘feeling’ and ‘relationship’, so that they are now ’blind spots’ in educational theory. Other chapters offer a cautionary analysis of how misshapen notions of psychology can legitimize eugenics (as in Nazi Germany) and poison racial attitudes. Above all, has psychology, with its focus on individual merit, been complicit in hiding the impacts of power and privilege in education? This bracing new volume adopts a broader definition of education and childrearing that admits the essential contribution of the humanities to the proper study of mankind.This publication, as well as the ones that are mentioned in the preliminary pages of this work, were realized by the Research Community (FWO Vlaanderen / Research Foundation Flanders, Belgium) Philosophy and History of the Discipline of Education: Faces and Spaces of Educational Research.

Is educational research chasing the trends one can observe in big sciences, mimicking what happens, some would say successfully, elsewhere in academia? The question in the title of this edited collection took its inspiration from a verse by Goethe: Wer Großes will, muss sich zusammenraffen. In der Beschränkung zeigt sich erst der Meister. Such confinement or limitation that may show mastery does not characterize at all the present state of the educational research publication scene. Instead, there have never been more of such publications which follow each other with an increasing speed. It may therefore be interesting to delve into the reasons of this development that is characteristic of what is published in this field as in many or almost all fields of scholarly work. The chapters in this collection address aspects of the (re)presentation, dissemination and reception, and the production and acceleration of educational research. An international group of scholars, philosophers and historians of education, address questions such as ‘Why publish?’, ‘The lust for academic fame’, ‘Why educational historiography is not an unnecessary luxury?’, and ‘Ways of knowing’. The twelve chapters are preceded by an introduction where issues of plurality and diversity in the study of education are at centre stage and followed by an Epilogue written by the Editors of the Springer Series Educational Research. Paul Smeyers and Marc Depaepe offer some final reflections after a journey of two decades that took them and the colleagues participating in the Research Community from 1999 till 2018 floating on the current of the Zeitgeist that carried the Discipline of Education. They claim finally that mastery in the study of education requires restraint.