This book addresses fundamental questions in relation to education and its epistemology. The position taken by the author is critical realist; and thus throughout the relationship between education and critical realism is foregrounded. Themes and issues that surface at different times in the book are: a critical realist view of education research; a resolution of the quantitative/qualitative divide; criteria for judging the worth of educational texts and practices; differences between scientific and critical realisms; empirical research methods in education; structure-agency relationships;...

What should we teach in our schools and vocational education and higher education institutions? Is theoretical knowledge still important?　

This book argues that providing students with access to knowledge should be the raison d'etre of education. Its premise is that access to knowledge is an issue of social justice because society uses it to conduct its debates and controversies.

Theoretical knowledge is increasingly marginalised in curriculum in all sectors of education, particularly in competency-based training which is the dominant curriculum model in vocational...