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Introduction
In general, educational research is not highly esteemed. Pring (2000) explains why: unlike (say) medical research, educational research does not address questions that policy makers and practitioners ask, it is fragmented and not very rigorous, and it is often politically motivated, thus alienating people with political views that are different from those of the researchers. Pring (2000) identifies two problematic tendencies in educational research: the attempt to be inappropriately scientific on the one hand, and the tendency to question notions such as truth, knowledge and objectivity, in favour of 'multiple realities', on the other. He explains that these tendencies are often presented as competing paradigms (Pring, 2000, pp. 44-56), 'paradigms' being sets of basic beliefs and assumptions which underpin the way in which people understand the world. He finds both tendencies inadequate and argues for a middle way, endorsing 'the central position of the teacher as researcher' (p. 161).
This article develops the aspect of Pring's argument which is outlined above, and extends it to music teachers' action research. It demonstrates that teacher-researchers can, like educational researchers more generally, adopt inappropriate paradigms for researching their classrooms and studios. It explains a more appropriate paradigm, and illustrates the argument with cases of music teachers' published action research. It aims to develop the theory and practice of music teachers' action research. In writing it, I have drawn on my own experience, undertaking action research and supporting action research, undertaken by others (Cain et al., 2007; Cain, 2008, 2010, 2011a , 2011b ; Cain & Milovic, 2010). My position is therefore informed by several years of sustained reflection on reading, researching, writing and teaching.
Educational action research
Pring (2000) was not the first author to question whether traditional research methods were appropriate to social practices such as education. Thirty years ago, Schön (1983) admitted that some problems can be addressed by scientific approaches to research but argued that these were not the most important ones:
In the varied topography of professional practice, there is a high, hard ground where practitioners can make effective use of research-based theory and technique, and there is a swampy lowland where situations are confusing "messes" incapable of technical solution. [. . .]...