Academic Respectability and Professional Relevance

Professor Pring's lecture celebrates both the centenary of the department and the first Chair in Education at Oxford University. His lecture gives a brief sketch of the beginning of the department, showing that the problems which confronted it 100 years ago were much the same as those confronting university based educational studies today, namely, how to be respectable in the eyes of the University on the one hand (with its proper demands for academic rigour and research) and in the eyes of the schools on the other (with their proper demands for practical relevance). Professor Pring attempts to show that this is a false dichotomy, and in so doing he spells out the distinctive kind of scholarship and research which link theory with practice and academic rigour with professional relevance. In so doing, he aims to provide a basis for university-based professional training appropriate for social workers, doctors and nurses as well as teachers.