58
..... wɛ wanted to be able to describe the socialisation
processes occurring in student teachers insofar as
those processes were similar across different types
of course - that is independent of institutional
characteristics. (1973 Ch3 P7 )
Whilst such a focus is a legitimate concern for the professional
researcher it may produce outcomes that are less useful for the
professionally concerned practitioner. For the latter as for those
concerned with the overall shaping of teacher education it is
institutional characteristics themselves that may be amenable to
change. The researchers may have been over-optimistic in their
assumptions that the dual approach of the research could be considered
complementary from
point of view of theoretical orientation
and
ιethodology .
The
complementarity may have had more to do with
the orientation of the distinct social scientific disciplines that
shaped the research than with their relationship to
the illumination
of practices by theoretically informed research. The time when
the research was undertaken, its structure and its funding were
probably more influential than the needs of practitioners, whether
administrators, teacher trainers, teachers or students.
This raises a second limitation which may be inherent in this form
of research and this is its relationship Withaprofessional audience.
When the research is substantially discipline-based members of that
and research community constitute the unseen audience
that
is so influential in determining the focus, the methodology and
the shape of the output.
Disciplines differ amongst themselves
and show significant changes over time in their conception of the
desirability of informing the conceptions and actions of a predomi-
nantly lay audience - professional or otherwise.