Fitting educational research to Latin America's developmental needs is a political issue involving differences in perspectives of Latin American and United States researchers, Latin American governments, and agencies concerned with development outside Latin America. A comparison of ERIC's "Current Index to Journals in Education" with the Latin American system of REDUC and more briefly with the "Handbook of Latin American Studies" suggests differences in definitions of research problems as well as societal significance. Research in English tends to use a psychological paradigm, whereas the Spanish relies on a sociological one. Further, policies and perceptions of groups within international aid agencies vary; World Bank project officers, for example, usually form alliances with those within the borrowing country's educational system, thus excluding other groups from access to loans. Bank researchers, on the other hand, may have closer contacts with U.S. academic researchers than with officials in borrowing countries. Education in Latin America is centralized, as is all political life, and research programs usually are made to fit preconceived definitions of needs. Plans ignoring educational systems' political bases are likely to fail, just as U.S. research is unlikely to "fit" given definitions of Latin American needs, since such needs vary. What is called for is a participatory approach that acknowledges change as a multistage and multilevel process. (KS)