It is in the nature of a journey that it must start somewhere; it is in the nature of research that it must have a focus. The authors begin this review with a summary of science education research that has been done in South Africa over past decades, and the focuses it has chosen. They then critique the research, focusing on the following questions: (1) What research is most worth doing?; (2) Where should researchers begin?; and (3) How is the research being conducted? The authors depended on the following principles as guides: research has to be defined and enacted in context (or rather, contexts); it should aim to be transformative (with all the ambiguities, politics and rigour that are implied, for the range of participants); and technicist approaches are limited, needing to be balanced with searches for deeper understandings and meanings. (Contains 3 footnotes.)