What Should Education Research Do, and How Should It Do It?

In this article, three theoretical perspectives are used to extend Bulterman-Bos's (2008) argument regarding a clinical approach to education research. First, three intellectual virtues identified by Aristotle--episteme, techne, and phronesis--are related to the requirements of the "pure" education researcher, the skilled practitioner, and the clinical researcher, respectively. Second, Churchman's typology of inquiry systems--based on whether the primary source of evidence is logic, observation, representation, dialectic, or values--is offered as a way of conceptualizing different kinds of inquiry in education. Third, recognizing that much practitioner knowledge is tacit, Nonaka and Takeuchi's model of knowledge conversion is suggested as a tool with which knowledge gained through different methods of inquiry might be brought into productive dialogue. 10.3102/0013189X08325678