Pre‐texts for research: a response to Robin Usher on theory and writing

Abstract

Robin Usher has raised questions concerning the nature of research in adult education in the light of postmodernism. In particular, in a recent issue of this Journal, hehas considered the implications of writing and reflexivity for research practice. Usher draws on rich sources in Continental philosophy and from these he indicates important considerations for the understanding of adult education and for the development of research. But his presentation harbours a potential for misinterpretation: divergent discourses run together in such a way that a relativism, a scepticism, and a rhetoric of oppression, all ultimately derived from modernism and widely influential in adult education, may be given undue support. This paper sets out to show how that misinterpretation might come about with a view to reclaiming the insights which Usher's sources (and some of his own writing) offer.