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This paper considers some of the decisions that researchers take and raises issues around researcher reflexivity, identity, values and ethics. It focuses attention on researchers and reflects on how the research they do, the topics they investigate, the methodologies they espouse, the methods they use and the writing/reporting styles they adopt, can have implications both in terms of their career development and with regard to their personal integrity and moral positioning. It is something of a truism to state that the sorts of research that get done depend upon the decisions researchers make. However, the relationship between research completed and in the public domain and individual researchers' choices is by no means a simple or straightforward one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article comments on the symposium titled Educational Research and the Necessity of Theory." The papers in the symposium arose out of the concern that educational researchers in Great Britain have neglected, and continue to neglect, and even deliberately avoid, theory. There are two opposing groups when it comes to theory. There are those of found it scary and frightening and there are those who are excited by it and believes that "theory floated their boat." The author believes that theory is an essential aspect of educational research and other research in social sciences.

Abstract Anecdotal evidence suggests that many qualitative researchers have had the experience of discovering that their informants had told them lies. This is quite different to those instances where faulty memory, subjective perception, partial or erroneous knowledge, a desire to give the researcher what they think they want, or even where a 'personal myth' comes in to play, because a lie is a conscious and deliberate intention to deceive. What should researchers do when they discover that they have been misled? What are the implications for qualitative methodology and its practitioners in the light of the criteria for good practice outlined in the Tooley Report? This article draws on two examples of informants who lied, in order to explore some of the questions and issues that can arise. It suggests, tentatively, that generic criteria may not always be sufficiently sensitive to cope with complexities of social life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Editorial. Introduces the August 2004 edition of the "British Educational Research Journal." Emphasis on the mobilization of some sort of Dad's Army in relation to social problems and dilemmas; Revisitation of the past educational research when issues of differentiation were given a much more pessimistic reading; Expression of the relevance of education research to policy and practice that the Government has either been slow to recognize.