An Elusive Science: The Troubling History of Education Research [Paperback]

Since its beginnings at the start of the 20th century, educational scholarship has been a marginal field, criticized by public policy makers and relegated to the fringes of academe.An Elusive Scienceexplains why, providing a critical history of the traditions, conflicts, and institutions that have shaped the study of education over the past century.

[C]andid and incisive. . . . A stark yet enlightening look at American education. —Library Journal

[A]n account of the search, over the past hundred or so years, to try and discover how educational research might provide reliable prescriptions for the improvement of education. Through extensive use of contemporary reference material, [Lagemann] shows that the search for ways of producing high-quality research has been, in effect, a search for secure disciplinary foundations. —Dylan William,Times Higher Education Supplement

Ellen Condliffe Lagemannis the president of the Spencer Foundation and a professor of history and education at New York University.

Preface
Introduction - A Slow Evolution: Education Becomes a Subject of University Research
The Feminization of Teaching
Conflict and Competition: High Schools, Normal Schools, Colleges, and Universities
Part I - In Quest of Science: The Early Years of Education Research
1. Reluctant Allies: Psychologists Turn to Education
G. Stanley Hall and the Child-Study Movement
Clark University: The Perfect Non-University of G. Stanley Hall
William James's Search for Vocation
Psychology and Education at Harvard
From Child Study to Child Hygiene
2. Specialization and Isolation: Education Research Becomes a Profession
John Dewey's Youth and Early Career
Dewey at the Laboratory School
A Creative Community: The Social Sources of Dewey's Thought
Edward L. Thorndike: Conquering the New World of Pedagogy
Thorndike and Teachers College: A Reciprocal Relal³$