Educational practice is developed in part through the results of educational research, and an analysis of a number of recent studies shows how theory, research, and practice. Researchers have a strong awareness of the fact that what they develop in an empirical study may lead in time to changes in the classroom or administrative office, and they take this responsibility seriously and consider its ramifications, often in terms of how research should be shaped. A number of theorists indeed conduct what amounts to research on research or on specific aspects of the research process as it is utilized in the educational field. One of the ideas that emerges from a number of theoretical studies is that the experience of teachers itself serves as a form of research and that teachers who are aware of this or who are involved in more direct forms of research benefit from their knowledge and can convey those benefits to others in terms of the development of future policy.
Valimaa and Westerheuden (1995) consider specifically how policy discourse and research discourse meet in contract research in higher education, and they find that the interplay of these discourses has consequences for researchers who must balance conflicting demands. The authors note that policy makers and researchers have different positions and interests. The authors provide a good overall analysis of the different positions a researcher occupies on different levels--local, national, and in the scientific community--and how these positions relate to the development and implementation of policy. What the authors have to say about the researcher is useful as well in telling the reader of educational research how to judge the outcome by understanding the biases and positions of the researchers and how the latter may affect the way the research is shaped, conducted, and analyzed.
Hargreaves (1996) considers the issue in terms of how the boundaries between educational...