In this paper, I explore the issue of relevance in educational research. I argue that the chronic efforts by researchers to pursue relevance is counterproductive. Paradoxically, trying to make research more relevant actually makes it less so. Drawing on an analysis by Mie Augier and Jim March, I show that this is the result of … Continue reading The Dysfunctional Pursuit of Relevance in Educational Research
This post is a lovely essay about that central academic institution, the endowed chair. It's written by a professor who wants one. Every professor does. Not because it brings money and power but because it offers the key form of academic compensation -- a little bit of fame. It picks up on a theme I've … Continue reading Buy Me a Chair
This is a piece I wrote about the harm that educational research has inflicted over the years. Given a track record of making things worse for school and society, educational researchers would do well to heed the wisdom in the Hippocratic Oath. If our work often fails to make things better, we should at least … Continue reading Do No Harm
This post is a recent essay by David Brooks about how the Trumpers have a point. A key part of what they're objecting to is people like us, the residents of the highly credentialed American meritocracy who lord it over the unwashed who didn't go to Princeton or didn't go to college at all. As … Continue reading David Brooks: What If We’re the Bad Guys Here?
Here are the syllabi for classes I taught at the Stanford Graduate School of Education. Each syllabus includes links to nearly all course readings, tips for doing the reading, and class slides. As a result you can take the course, either individually and in groups. Feel free to share the syllabi with anyone you want. … Continue reading All of My Course Syllabi, Including Links to Readings, Reading Tips, and Slides
This post is a piece from the The Economist about the cost of attending American universities. It pushes back against the conventional wisdom about the excessive cost burden that these institutions impose on students. The spin is one I like, which is that universities have an incentive to appear more expensive than they really are. … Continue reading Sticker Shocker: US Universities Aren’t as Expensive as They Look
This post is a brief essay I wrote in 2003 for The Navigator, a publication of the Center for Education Policy Analysis as the USC Rossier School of Education. Romance, Realism. and the Future of Ed Schools David F. Labaree American education schools have long had a romance with the rhetoric of pedagogical progressivism, and … Continue reading Romance, Realism, and the Future of Ed Schools
All too often, academic writing is tone deaf to the music of language. Just as we tend to consider unprofessional any writing that is playful, engaging, funny, or moving, so too with writing that is musical. A professional monotone is the scholar's voice of choice. This stance leads to two big problems. One is that … Continue reading Academic Writing Issues #4: Failing to Listen for the Music
Social media provide a wide open space for social exchange and personal expression. This openness is both its strength and its weakness. Anything is possible, and in practice nearly everything does indeed take place online. For anyone entering into this space, you have to choose your online persona. Now that I've been posting on this … Continue reading Thoughts On My Online Persona
This post is a preview of my new book, which I recently published with Kindle. It's available on Amazon both as an e-book and a paperback. The title is Being a Scholar: Reflections on Doctoral Study, Scholarly Writing, and Academic Life. Below is the book's introduction, which provides the rationale for the book and summarizes … Continue reading My New Book: Being a Scholar
David Labaree on Schooling, History, and Writing 