The moral, social and political responsibility of educational researchers: Resisting the current quest for certainty

In the last decade a number of national and international activities and public policies in the US have converged to prescribe a particular conception of educational research. Randomized control trials have been set as the “gold standard” and educational researchers are now pressed to come up with “solid” evidenced-based findings of “what works” on the basis of which interventions can be designed to improve educational practice. These efforts have the potential to marginalize many educational researchers and practitioners and to further regiment education and schooling in ways that privilege particular interests while ignoring the local, cultural, and socio-political positioning of students, teachers and researchers. The purpose here is to understand the meaning and origin of this prescriptive move by international and national agencies, and their actual and potential consequences. This article provides an in depth analysis of a number of critical issues for the work of educational researchers and practitioners and examine the anachronistic nature of these public policies and activities, and their connection to globalization and a neo-liberal market economy.