An Elusive Science: The Troubling History of Education Research (Paperback)

~ Ellen Condliffe Lagemann (Author) "During the 1890s, the map of higher learning changed profoundly in the United States..." (more)
Key Phrases: school survey movement, early educationists, narrow problematics, University of Chicago, United States, World War (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Lagemann, who is chair of humanities and the social sciences at New York University and president of the National Academy of Education, has a long history in the field of higher education. In this candid and incisive study, she examines how Americans perceive the people who practice education and explains why their low-status work has undermined the possibilities for developing a strong professional community and a generative scholarly tradition. Weak financial support led to weak research, which in turn led to continued weak financial support. This catch-22 situation has also contributed to the lack of public support and respect. Taking a historical perspective, Lagemann critically examines problems associated with educational scholarship and argues that federal requirements for program evaluation have resulted in an improved understanding of the education policymaking process. She considers not only where education research may have gone astray but also the promising directions it may be taking in the future. A stark yet enlightening look at American education, research methodologies, and federal government funding agencies and their practices, this book is recommended for academic and larger public libraries.DSamuel T. Huang, Northern Illinois Univ., DeKalb
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

"[C]andid and incisive.... A stark yet enlightening look at American education." - Library Journal; "[A]n account of the search, over the past hundred or so years, to try and discover how educational research might provide reliable prescriptions for the improvement of education. Through extensive use of contemporary reference material, [Lagemann] shows that the search for ways of producing high-quality research has been, in effect, a search for secure disciplinary foundations." - Dylan William, Times Higher Education Supplement

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press; 1 edition (May 15, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226467732
• ISBN-13: 978-0226467733
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #685,719 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Required Reading for All University Educational Researchers?, September 19, 2007

By	Ray "A Reader" - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Lagemann's book is a well researched look into American higher education, particularly concerning the emergence of Colleges of Education within universities in the late 19th century. Prior to this time, the field of "education" lay strictly within the confines of the individual disciplinary domains, and was not considered as a subject requiring special distinction. Lageman is able to use this historical context to illuminate the struggles that theorists and psychologists at the time experienced as they attempted to determine if "education" could - or SHOULD - be deemed a "science," and the subsequent effect such decisions played in the educational setting of the University. And although the author may focus much of her book on the issue of economic funding (she describes the common cycle of insufficient funding, which leads to less research, which, in turn, leads to less funding, etc), in my mind the most interesting part of her story is the description of those seminal debates that lead to the birth of the field of educational psychology, and the examination of the arguments for and against the pronouncement of "education" as a unique field.

Although at the start of the 21st century we now rarely question the result of these 19th-century decisions, Lagemann's text is nevertheless a reminder that our current University setting was not necessarily ordained to be so. Perhaps more importantly, her text allows us to consider and re-examine the issues surrounding the types of education-related questions that, even now, reamin unsettled: Does an instructor need to be a subject matter expert in order to meaningfully teach students, or are there specific instructional principles and techniques that are more critical than an instructor's personal subject matter knowledge as determinants in student achievement? Are subject matter experts the best teachers, or are experts in educational processes the best teachers? What combination of these skills should there be for one to be considered a "premier" instructor? Is education really a "science" like the natural sciences, or is there too much of "education" that is based on personal styles, learner preferences, and the intimate human relationships between instructors and students to prevent it from ever becoming a fully empirically-validated field?

These are just a few of the many issues surrounding Lagemann's history (and I look at this book almost as much as a history book as a position piece), and the author does a wonderful job of bringing all these historical events together and allowing us to reconsider such basic issues. It may not result in agreement between readers, but it certainly drives us to consider once again what's most important in the field of educational research.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Slow, Painful Growth of Ed Schools and Ed Scholars., September 2, 2009

By	Kevin Currie-Knight "Education Grad Student" (Newark, Delaware) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)

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"An Elusive Science" is a book that chronicles (with minimal editorial) about 100 years of education's attempt to become a science. The book starts off in the late 1800's, when, thanks to William James, psychology was just becoming a serious discipine, and the business of education was largely seen as a trade. Soon, "normal schools" were founded with the purpose of teacing educators, which gave rise to university departments, which gave rise to the idea of education as a research discipline.

The author's main theme - if there is a theme to this historical chronicle - is that psychologist Edward Thorndike won the war of "visions" of what education research would look like, against his colleague, philosopher John Dewey. Following Thorndike, education research became very quantatitive, behavioristic, and attached to developing systems. Curriculum development specialists wrote various methods of teaching in an effort to "objectify" a very personalized discipline. (Education, thus, was trying to become mechanized in the same way of Frederick Taylor's "scientific management" of the late 1800's.) The author follows this history up to the 1980's, where the tide slowly, but not completely, turned in favor of more qualitative approaches to education.

The biggest problem I have with this book is that the author did not make a greatly persuasive case that these results and this history was troubling, as suggested in her subtitle. Yes, education research became almost obsessive about quantization, systemization, and ranking things in hierarchy. The body of the book is only devoted to the idea THAT this happened, not WHY it was a "troubling" development. (She does this only in the introduction and epilogue.)

This book is, however, a very interesting history that finds much historical overlap with Left Back: A Century of Battles over School Reform, and philosophical kinship with The Trouble with Ed Schools. As another reviewer astutely points out, this book reminds us that the current field of education as a university research discipline was nowhere a necessary state of affairs, but rather, it evolved slowly and painfully. This book will certainly be of interest to scholars interested in learning about the history of this development.

1 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A "troubling history" indeed., May 19, 2007

By	James Burraston "jacobus scriptor" (Somerville, MA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book forced me to reevaluate all of my assumptions about education reform.