The Education Continuum

Guest post from David Scott, co-author of Researching Education

Researching Education: Data, Methods and Theory in Educational Enquiry is a second edition of a book first published in 2000. This new version includes a substantially rewritten account of philosophical issues relating to educational research, a new chapter on judgemental criteria for educational research, and a detailed account of feminist approaches to research. The focus and substantive content of the book is the same as it was when it was first published. It sets out to examine the theory and practice of researching education, focusing on the philosophical, historical, political and social contexts in which such research is conducted, and the implications of these contexts for the collection and analysis of data. The point is that everyone thinks that they know what research is and how to do it; whereas in fact most research is poorly constructed, inadequately conceptualised and over-claiming of its results. In part, this is because those ontological and epistemological frameworks within which all research is located are rarely surfaced for attention and the methods and approaches used to collect and analyse data are subsequently misconceived. So, this book serves as a corrective to research studies which deny the sociality of the research process and the implicit power relations that underpin these works. In short, it seeks to problematise the practice of research and examine how power is ever present in the construction of research texts, not in a partisan sense nor indeed so that it is deliberately biased and distorted, but rather in the sense that it imposes a closure of the world, when openness is to be preferred.

Continuum at the AERA Annual Meeting in New Orleans

Continuum will be at the 2011 American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting in New Orleans, April 9-11. Come by our booth (#304) to say hello, browse our books, and buy at 35% off. We'll have both editorial and marketing staffers available to chat with. We're giving away an iPad 2, so be sure to drop your business card for a chance to win. See you there!

Kara Zavada
US Marketing Manager

Continuum eBooks Launch

We are delighted to announce the launch of our ebook store Continuum eBooks. The ebook store features a wide selection of titles from across Continuum's Humanities, Education, and Religion lists, available for download in Adobe PDF and ePub formats. The majority of our frontlist titles will be released as ebooks on the store, simultaneously with the publication of print editions, and an extensive conversion project will see a vast number of backlist titles made available for instant download.

Browse the store to discover academic ebooks for all levels of study, by leading thinkers and researchers, professional education guides on a wide variety of topics by well-respected practitioners, or for general non-fiction titles from across a variety of our subject areas.

Initially the store is open to individuals, but we expect to offer packages aimed at academic institutions from the end of June 2011. If you are interested in purchasing ebooks for a library please click here.

Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain

I'm heading to New College, Oxford, for the Philosophy of Eduaction Society of Great Britain conference this weekend.  If you are attending, please come and see me at the stand to say hello, to take advantage of the conference discount on lots of our recently published books or to talk about new book project ideas.

I look forward to seeing some of you there.

Alison Baker
Commissioning Editor (Academic Education)