The assumptions underlying this contribution are, first, that educational research, like research in other fields, is expected to yield knowledge. This is rather uncontroversial. It is only when it comes to the definition of knowledge, the kinds of knowledge sought and to questions as to whose knowledge counts, that the debate characteristically…

The processes of gaining consent for educational and social research with children and young people have become increasingly complex. A variety of influences contribute to this complexity. In this paper, we use post-structural concepts to focus on the influence of three co-existing and interweaving perspectives: protectionist, participatory and…

The use of poststructuralist thought in educational research is constrained by a tension between, on the one hand, what is considered to be its emancipatory and empowering potential and, on the other, a reluctance to be distracted from practical concerns and, hence, a fear of alienating the practitioner by speaking in terms of the theoretical.…

This paper raises the issue of what it is to be "critical" in education studies and in social theory more generally. It argues that this idea has for a long time been associated with forms of social constructionism and sociological reductionism. These understand the idea that knowledge is social in terms of reducing it to the experiences and…

"The Routledge International Handbook of Critical Education" is the first authoritative reference work to provide an international analysis of the relationship between power, knowledge, education, and schooling. Rather than focusing solely on questions of how we teach efficiently and effectively, contributors to this volume push further…

This paper explores various epistemological paradigms available to understand, interpret, and semiotically depict young people. These paradigms all draw upon a metadiscourse of developmental age and stage (e.g. Hall 1914) and then work from particular epistemological views of the world to cast young people in different lights. Using strategic…

The emergence of postmodern ideas in the educational literature has complicated the field?s understandings of oppression and resistance. While important, this postmodern influence has been problematic in its tendency to stress the relatively nurturing forms of "pastoral" control generally experienced by the privileged. Such a focus can direct…

In his "Rethinking Domination and Resistance: Challenging Postmodernism" ("Educational Researcher," January-February, 2004), Aaron Schutz questioned what he saw as postmodernism's fascination with the workings of pastoral modes of control, a preoccupation that prevents postmodernists from locating and opposing the disciplinary controls experienced…

Ideas from postpositivist thinking have been particularly challenging for comparative education scholarship and its metanarratives. Analysis of articles in major comparative education journals in the 1990s examines the integration of ideas from 10 poststructuralist thinkers and explores in detail the appropriation of Foucault's ideas and…

Explores pedagogical reforms as effects of power. Contains two sections: the first examines turn-of-the-century practices to professionalize teachers and redefine pedagogy; the second focuses on the redemptive culture of contemporary reforms. Argues that contemporary educational sciences inscribe principles of order related to changes in the…