Anna Traianou

• Goldsmiths University of London

In this article, I treat 'academic freedom' as referring to the autonomy that academics need if they are to do their work well, on analogy with what is required in other professional occupations. In these terms, I argue that there are 2 aspects of academic freedom: the degree of autonomy that universities have from governments, and the autonomy tha...

The dominant conception of social research ethics is centred on deontological and consequentialist principles. In place of this, some qualitative researchers have proposed a very different approach. This appeals to a range of commitments that transform the goal of research as well as framing how it is pursued. This new ethics demands a participator...

This article uses the later writings of Foucault as a means of reflecting on research ethics, and in particular on the notion of researcher autonomy. It is suggested that such autonomy is a precondition for ethical practice, and also for sound research, and it is noted that it is under threat today, not least from creeping ethical regulation. Fouca...

In this paper, I examine the nature of primary science expertise using an ethnographic and sociocultural approach and a theoretical analysis that conceptualises educational practice in terms of the resolution of dilemmas. Using data from an in-depth investigation of the perspective and practice of a single teacher, I discuss some of the dilemmas fa...

This article notes the increasing attention given to research ethics in recent years and focuses on two of the reasons for this: the growth in ethical regulation and the emergence of some kinds of qualitative research that foreground ethical ideals. It is argued that both involve forms of moralism or ethicism, in other words ‘the vice of overdoing...

This article outlines the main education reforms that have taken place in Greece from the 1960s until the present. The author discusses how the direction of these reforms has been influenced not only by ‘global’ pressures for ‘modernization’ but also by the distinctive socio-cultural Greek context. The conclusion stresses that despite the various a...

In their rejoinder to our article about their work on evidence‐based science education, Millar et al. (20082. Millar , R. , Leach , J. , Osborne , J. and Ratcliffe , M. 2008 . Research and practice in science education: a response to Traianou and Hammersley . Oxford Review of Education , 34 (4) : 483 – 488 . [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Scien...

There are some important ambiguities in discussions about the implications of 'evidence-based practice', both for educational research and for the work of teachers. In this paper we explore several of these through examining the Evidence-based Practice in Science Education (EPSE) studypart of the Teaching and Learning Research Programme (TLRP), a m...

While the use of ethnographic and qualitative research methods has spread across many fields of educational inquiry, until recently this has had little impact on research in science education. However, there is currently a methodological shift taking place in this area, prompted by the rise of a sociocultural perspective on cognition, which sees kn...

In recent years, increasing emphasis has come to be placed, both by researchers and by policy-makers, on the adequacy of primary teachers' subject knowledge of science. Within research, this emphasis has been linked to the rise of constructivist ideas about the significance of establishing children's prior conceptions of scientific concepts for eff...

In recent years much emphasis has been placed, both by researchers and by policy-makers, on the role that subject knowledge plays in the classroom practice of primary teachers. Within UK research on primary science education, this emphasis is often linked with constructivist ideas about effective teaching. In this article, I explore the implication...