Response to Comments Clinical Study: A Pursuit of Responsibility as the Basis of Education Research

pp. 412–420) focused on the question of whether a clinical research practice might make education research more relevant for practice. The characteristics of a clinical approach are as follows: 1. An overlap in the roles of the researcher and the profes-sional. Researchers of education are practicing teachers, just as medical researchers are doctors. 2. A focus not on theory as separate from practice but on theory-informed practice. Indeed, as David Labaree correctly concluded in his response arti-cle (in this issue of the journal), my answer to the question of whether education research should become a clinical study is “yes.” I mentioned four reasons why I believe a conversion is necessary. 1. Active engagement with the object of study. Active engage-ment shapes the frameworks through which researcher