Making Educational Studies Respectable

The need to integrate theory with practice is widely recognised as one of the central issues of teacher education. The problem might be crudely depicted as a conflict of priorities between a ‘high‐level’ activity (educational theorising) and a ‘low‐level’ activity (development of practical skills). However, the authors here point out that ‘educational study’ is itself often seen as a low‐level activity by the rest of the academic community. Their analysis of the situation sheds light upon the standing of teacher education itself, but they offer also a thought‐provoking attack on much of what is said, in teacher education circles, about the theory‐practice link.