Self-referent Research

Abstract

I will discuss a number of items that fall under the heading of selfreferent research, broadly conceived. This will include not only some comments on the state of our research on educational research, but also some comments on research dealing with vehicles of educational research, for example, the printed word, the machinery for its processing and production, and the journals which select and package it. Studies of research practice of the proportion of women presenters at AERA compared to the proportion of women members, or studies of the relative popularity of different research methods, for example, studies of the spread of ANOVA methodology in published educational research articles, constitute one kind of research on research that might be called descriptive metaresearch. This should be distinguished from R & D work on or evaluations of the machinery of research dissemination (e.g., ERIC or microforms, or videodiscs or communicating word processors). In addition to descriptive, R & D, and evaluative research on research, there is policy research on, for example, the policies of research journals. Educational research covers a broad area. Although I cannot guarantee the absence of a text or anthology of research on the many aspects of educational research, I am confident that there is no substantial number of such volumes, or large body of journal articles. However, there certainly have been some excellent individual studies and an occasional series. This paper does not report on such research, but I will discuss its importance and how it might be done or improved. Why is it important? A case can be made that a categorical imperative, an obligation of professionalism, should require us to treat this as a priority duty. We are all aware of the protracted failure of the great universities to inspire, support or reward research on their own teaching procedures, their own raison d'etre, a failure which is only being rectified because of external pressure. We should also bear in mind the