Novel forms of research governance and their possible impact on the future of educational research

Abstract

This article sets out to contribute to the current debate on the transformation of educational research with regard to global transitions and challenges. Nation-centred hierarchical organizations in Europe have increasingly failed to address emergent processes. And in contrast novel forms of governance have gained prevalence in controlling uncertainty and contingency in the transforming European Educational Research Space. The paper addresses one particular dimension of current educational research – that of the mechanisms by which transnational research operates within the European Educational Research space. Within this framework special attention is given to the issue of the governance, as a specific process shaping research cultures in the past, present and future, and to the role of European research associations as a system of evolving networks of ‘knowledge spaces’. The article problematizes assumptions about the potential of European research associations to construct vocabularies, perspectives and applications in an attempt to open up dialogues, discipline narrativity and create a new sovereign actor. The paper concludes with proposals for possible future visions based on the outcomes of the analysis of the nature of the current educational research governance.