Available Formats
Theory Building in Educational Research
By (Author) Nigel Kettley
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd.
23rd September 2010
United Kingdom
Professional and Scholarly
Non Fiction
370.72
Hardback
224
Width 156mm, Height 234mm
This volume provides comprehensive guidance on the subjects of concept generation and theory building in educational research. By deploying the conceptual, methodological and theoretical principles of the Cambridge School of Sociology, which underpin a range of contemporary empirical research, the author shows how theory building and theory in contemporary educational research are in a state of crisis. In his compelling analysis, Nigel Kettley develops an alternative approach to theory building in educational research, and explores a radical new system for facilitating the growth of knowledge and the development of sound policy recommendations in education studies.
Nigel Kettley has written a courageous, scholarly and easy to read wake up call for publicly-funded education research. If the argument in this book were widely accepted, and it should be, it would lead to a revolutionary and highly ethical improvement in the use of evidence for explanations.' Stephen Gorard, Professor of Education Research, University of Birmingham, UK
Kettley has written a provocative and challenging tour de force about theory building in education research. An essential resource for teachers of research methods and new researchers alike, this book also invites established researchers to interrogate the foundations of their practice as an important contribution to the development of an often contested field of enquiry.' Zane Ma Rhea, Senior Lecturer, Monash University, Australia
If like me, you sometimes wonder whether many of our colleagues actually realise that research involves finding things out, and that we have an ethical responsibility to do that as well as we can, then you will find this book reassuring... This is a further wake-up call for publicly funded education research, and I hope many people will read it, and use it in their methods development activities. -- Educational Review, 63:4
Nigel Kettley is Lecturer in Social Science at the Institute of Continuing Education and Fellow of Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, UK.