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With so much technical information about research methods it is easy to lose sight of the bigger picture of why we carry out educational research and where and how research might contribute to the improvement of education. Educational Research: An Unorthodox Introduction, steps new researchers through the wider social and political contexts of educational research, focusing on fundamental questions such as what education actually 'is' and what it is for, what it might mean to improve education and how research can help in that task and where it may actually hinder it. In doing so, the book raises questions that more 'orthodox' introductions to the theory and practice of educational research often leave aside. Gert Biesta covers a range of key issues which permeate any educational research project, including the roles of theory in research, the question what it means and takes to improve education, the limits of evidence and 'what works,' the nature of educational practice, the history of educational research and scholarship, the connection between research, professionality and democracy, what it means to have knowledge in and about education, and what the social and political dimensions of academic publishing are. The book does not provide an alternative for doing research, but seeks to help beginning and more experienced researchers with keeping an eye on the bigger picture: the socio-political contexts in and through which educational research takes place. Each chapter includes a set of questions to stimulate further discussion.
