Educational Research and the Distortion of Educational Practice

In this chapter I raise the question what kind of thoughtfulness should support and inform the practice of education. I discuss how in recent years the idea has taken hold that educational practice is served best by empirically generated evidence about ‘what works,’ that is, about which interventions are most effective in generating desired (measurable) outcomes. My issue with this approach is not epistemological, that is, it is not about the question whether such knowledge is possible or not, but rather praxeological, in that I focus on the question how the practice of education itself is depicted in such research. I argue that the main problem with the idea of research providing evidence about ‘what works’ is that it presents a distorted account of the dynamics and complexities of education. I show how and why this is the case and what kind of ‘push backs’ are meaningful to work towards an account of teaching that ‘makes sense’ from the angle of educational practice. In addition to providing an account of education that is more accurate and more adequate, I also warn against the possibility that the ‘fit’ between research and practice is not sought in modes of research that are adequate for practice, but rather in adjusting educational practice so that it ‘fits’ the research. I conclude by suggesting that this may not just be a theoretical option, but that distorted forms are increasingly transforming educational practice in problematic and ultimately uneducational ways.