How Well Does Educational Research Really Travel?

Abstract

The flow of contemporary educational research has been amply documented; with few exceptions, regnant constructs and methods flow outward from North America, where the concentration of resources is highest. This article begins by turning the question around: Which kinds of research are imported into North America, and why these? It then looks more carefully, and a bit humorously, at attempts to assimilate North American research into Western Europe. The author draws two lessons. First, there are critical issues of validity at stake in the transnational transfer of research. Second, researchers should "go public" more fully with regard to the limits of their work in the hands of other people or even in their own hands when they travel abroad with their constructs and methods.