Educational research is a broad field, encompassing elements that have been derived over time from a number of different academic disciplines: psychology, sociology, philosophy, politics, history, and anthropology, to name six. Educational research covers subjects as diverse as pedagogy (for example, research into learning and teaching in classroom settings), psychology and social psychology (e.g., example, research into how people learn), policy (e.g., the impact of government legislation on educational provision), and culture (e.g., the cultures of educational institutions). All of these are quite distinct areas for inquiry and of necessity draw on different kinds, or paradigms, of research method and methodology. And yet they are all understood as being “educational research.” This broad, if not generous, definition is at the same time both necessary because ...