This article is centrally concerned with the sort of knowledge that can and should inform educational policy--and it treats this as an epistemological question. It distinguishes this question from the more extensively explored question of what sort of knowledge in what form policy-makers do in fact commonly take into account. The article examines…

This paper starts from the point in the early 1970s at which educational theory and research was temporarily structured under the "foundation" disciplines of psychology, sociology, philosophy and history of education. It observes the way the intellectual resources of educational research have become enlarged and enriched and these disciplines…

Non-paternalistic arguments supporting the rights of parents to have a say concerning their children's schooling are presented. These include parents' rights rooted in (1) extensions of their own freedoms, (2) parental involvement in children's suffering and success, (3) a contract of birth, and (4) exceptional demands of familial relationships.…