One of the most characteristic and annoying tendencies in academic writing is the excessive use of signposting: here's what I'm going to do, here I am doing it, and here's what I just did. You can trim a lot of text from your next paper (and earn the gratitude of your readers) by just telling … Continue reading Academic Writing Issues #1: Excessive Signposting
Month: August 2019
Targeting Teachers
In this piece, I explore a major problem I have with recent educational policy discourse -- the way we have turned teachers from the heroes of the public school story to its villains. If students are failing, we now hear, it is the fault of teachers. This targeting of teachers employs a new form of … Continue reading Targeting Teachers
The Dysfunctional Pursuit of Relevance in Educational Research
In this paper, I explore the issue of relevance in educational research. I argue that the chronic efforts by researchers to pursue relevance is counterproductive. Paradoxically, trying to make research more relevant actually makes it less so. Drawing on an analysis by Mie Augier and Jim March, I show that this is the result of … Continue reading The Dysfunctional Pursuit of Relevance in Educational Research
Do No Harm
This is a piece I wrote about the harm that educational research has inflicted over the years. Given a track record of making things worse for school and society, educational researchers would do well to heed the wisdom in the Hippocratic Oath. If our work often fails to make things better, we should at least … Continue reading Do No Harm
David Labaree on Schooling, History, and Writing 