‘Post’ Haste: plodding research and galloping theory

Abstract

This paper outlines the difficulties in conceptualising and presenting research, in particular doctoral work in education, in the current climate of intellectual theorising. It argues that many researchers experience a phenomenon described in the paper as ‘post‐modernist tension’ when trying to write in an atmosphere of theoretical and methodological uncertainty. The author elaborates the ‘symptoms’ of post‐modernist tension, and makes a critique of some elements of contemporary social theorising. Nevertheless, the author acknowledges the usefulness of contemporary social theory in challenging traditional research, despite its density and inaccessibility to many researchers