This article draws on the author's experience as Director of the Teaching and Learning Research Programme (TLRP), the UK's largest coordinated educational research initiative, to review some recent developments in the field and, in particular, some major contemporary challenges. In response to critiques of educational research of the late 1990s, TLRP's main developmental strategy is characterized as a form of a "reflexive activism" in which researchers are both pro-active in promoting the field externally, but are also strongly committed to self-improvement. In the main sections of the paper, four types of contemporary challenge are identified: contextual, conceptual, methodological and transformational. In conclusion, it is suggested that there may be a new opportunity to take the initiative through the formation of a new strategic forum for research in education. A version of this paper was delivered at "Educational Review's" Annual Lecture, Birmingham, UK, October 2005. (Contains 1 figure, 1 table, and 2 notes.)