Practice Relationship IDENTIFIERS *United Kingdom

This paper examines educational research today, its status, and its contribution to the policy-making process in the United Kingdom. It argues that educational research and policy making is in crisis; centrally funded research is subject to increasing intervention and restrictions on reporting; research findings are misreported in the press; and the policy-making process has become truncated by ignoring discussion, debate, and research evidence. In addition, the direction of current reforms is contrary to the style of curriculum, learning, and assessment that research has shown as necessary to produce resourceful, active learners for the 21st century. Recommendations are made to restate the goals shared by educators and the means to achieve those goals; develop researcher-teacher networks; battle against restrictive contracts (in particular, the limitations on publication); describe future "dystopias"; and reintroduce the concept of equity into the debate. The importance of academic critique, intellectual activity, and collegial work within the polity is even greater in this policy climate that is hostile to research in general and education in particular. (LMI) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document