The name is absent

17

Even with the decline of a commitment to a positivistic stance and

methodology, much research whilst within education, saw its audience
and sought its inspiration within its founding discipline. This
is likely to have had important consequences for a professional
audience who moved to it for illumination and guidance in their
professional practices. This somewhat uncomfortable duality of
function is expressed in the Sussex research (Lacey et al 1973)
considered in Chapter Two. There researchers assumed that as soci-
oligɪsts and social psychologists they could pursue their interest
in the professional socialization of teachers whilst at the same

educationists .

Educational research activity frequently focused upon schools, teachers
and pupils, yet teachers and educationists often became disenchanted
with the lack of influence of research upon practice. This disenchant-
ment, in part, fuelled the development of new forms of research
and evaluation which have been claimed as ’illuminative’ by both
their advocates and their recipients, and indeed these distinctions
have themselves been blurred by the ideas and practices of the teacher
as researcher. (Stenhouse 1975)

An added complication when the focus is teacher education is that
which comes from the role of teacher educator. Frequently teacher
educators involved in the development and teaching of the experimental
programmes may themselves be involved in educational research sensitive
to the paradigm shifts and their consequences in a direct way.
In an important sense a basis of their involvement in changing their
own practices is a concern to ’’bring what knowledge we do possess

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