Contested Terrain: A History of Education Research in the United States, 1890–1990

Abstract

During the last 100 years, the history of education research has been marked by continuing contests among different groups, especially scholars of education, scholars in other fields and disciplines, school administrators, and teachers. To make sense of these contests, it is useful to understand them from a “system-of- professions” perspective in which professionalization is seen as an ongoing competition to secure jurisdiction in particular domains of human service. Viewed this way, the history of education research suggests that the development of wide support for education research will depend on surmounting the jurisdictional challenges that have heretofore precluded sustained agreement about the methods and focus of the field.