Education reform and reconstruction as a challenge to research genres: Reconsidering school effectiveness research and inclusive schooling

This paper examines the invention of school effectiveness as a specific cur riculum and pedagogic discourse that has captured not only the hearts and m inds of a body of educational researchers but also of policy-makers and pol iticians from different parts of the political spectrum. It is divided into three parts. First it explores previously identified questions surrounding the methodology and its underlying epistemological assumptions; second, it considers the politics of school effectiveness research and in particular the political context for the publication of the book School Effectiveness for Whom? published in 1998; third, it reflects upon dilemmas that confront inclusive education research and how these may suggest similar considerati ons for school effectiveness research. It concludes with the argument that the most important question today for school effectiveness researchers and other researchers who wish for a more inclusive school system is to disenta ngle the concept of efficiency from effectiveness and to review their think ing about whom schools are most 'effective' for.