Researching education

Recent criticisms of research on education have largely missed the point. By focusing on schools, they have failed to take note of the enormous range of research on teaching and learning in education defined more broadly. This highly topical report looks across the traditional education system and wherever else teaching and learning takes place. It looks at schools, colleges and universities on the one hand, and industrial training, nurse and student mentoring, professional development and lifelong learning/learning society on the other. This report brings research on schools, further and higher education into the necessary relationship with the wider educational scenario that the government has sought to promote. It illuminates the current intensive debates at government, quasi-government and research community levels about the nature and status of research in 'education'. Conceived from a refreshingly wide angle, Researching education is an interesting review of the field of educational research. Researching education calls for a wider understanding of education by policy makers and research funders, and an understanding that research on the formal education system is only one part of the greater pattern of individual and social learning. This report is therefore important reading for all education policy makers, education researchers and research students.