For a little over 40 years, what we label now physics education research has been conducted. As a result, a new type of theme in the research and in physics education has emerged. Some of these themes are cognitivism, research as qualitative, learning as construction of knowledge, theoretical underpinnings that are not realist, student-centered pedagogies, and scholarship in fields outside physics. These themes have arisen in minds of some of our colleagues, who have focused their attention on students' conceptions of physical phenomena, instead of how well the students do on conventional tests. In spite of the evidence from physics education research, which shows that alternative pedagogies result in a wider range of students making greater changes in their understanding of the phenomena, these themes are still just themes and not major changes in physics teaching as a whole enterprise. Since we know these pedagogies are better for our students and thereby for our culture, the challenge becomes one of how to overcome the hegemonic pressures pushing back toward the "status quo."