This book focuses on the language of educational research as well as on the language of education. It conceives both as social practices and investigates how rhetoric plays a part in the complex process of historically situated argumentation. The book aims to answer such questions as: What is the nature of the arguments and the kinds of sources one relies on? and What kind of reasoning is offered to convince practitioners? Taking postmodern criticism seriously, the contributors argue that the scholar or researcher cannot indulge in relativism or be satisfied with a description of...

Education and educational research, according to the current fashion, are supposed to be concerned with what works, to the exclusion of all other considerations. All over the world, and particularly in the English-speaking countries, governments look for means of improving student achievement as measured by standardized test scores. Although such improvements are often to be welcomed, they do not answer all significant questions about what constitutes good education. Also the research on which they are based is not the only legitimate way to do educational research. Social research, and...

This book focuses on the language of educational research as well as on the language of education. It conceives both as social practices and investigates how rhetoric plays a part in the complex process of historically situated argumentation. The book aims to answer such questions as: What is the nature of the arguments and the kinds of sources one relies on? and What kind of reasoning is offered to convince practitioners? Taking postmodern criticism seriously, the contributors argue that the scholar or researcher cannot indulge in relativism or be satisfied with a description of...