Martyn Hammersley

Prof Hammersley is a foremost educational researcher. He has a large range of publications, covering methods and substantial pieces of (usually qualitative) work. He is famous for rigorous questioning of recent approaches to educational inquiry, including action research, practitioner research, teachers as researchers, demands for relevant research and so on.

List of publications in OU repository

Particular critical pieces include:

Hammersley, M (1995)'Theory and Evidence in Qualitative Research', in Quality and Quantity, 29: 55--66.
Hammersley, M. (1996) 'Post Mortem or Postmodern?Reflections on British Sociology of Education, British Journal of Education Studies, 44(4): 395--407.
Hammersley, M (1997) 'Educational research and teaching: A response to David Hargreaves' TTA lecture', British Educational Research Journal, Vol. 23, Issue 2.
(and see Hargreaves' response: Hargreaves, D., (1997) In defence of research for evidence-based teaching: A rejoinder to Martyn Hammersley. British Educational Research Journal, Vol. 23, Issue 4).
Hammersley. M.(2000) 'Varieties of social research: a typology', International Journal of Social Research, 3(3) 221 - 229.
Hammersley, M. (2000) 'The Relevance of Qualitative Research',Oxford Review of Education, Vol. 26, Nos. 3&4.
Hammersley, M. (2001) 'On ‘Systematic’ Reviews of Research Literatures: a ‘narrative’ response to Evans
& Benfield' British Educational Research Journal, Vol. 27, No. 5.
Hammersley, M. (2001) 'Interpreting Achievement Gaps: Some Comments on a Dispute', British Journal of Educational Studies, 49(3): 285--98.
Hammersley, M. (2001) 'On Michael Bassey’s Concept of the Fuzzy Generalisation', Oxford Review of Education, Vol. 27, No. 2, 2001.
Hammersley, M. (2003) 'Conversation analysis and discourse analysis: methods or paradigms?, Discourse & Society 14(6).
Hammersley, M. (2003) 'Media Representation of Research: the case of a review of ethnic minority education', British Educational Research Journal, Vol. 29, No. 3.
Hammersley, M (2003) 'Can and Should Educational Research be Educative?', Oxford Review of Education, Vol. 29, No. 1.
Hammersley, M. (2003) '"Analytics" are No Substitute for Methodology: A Response to Speer and Hutchby' Sociology 37; 339
Hammersley, M.(2004) 'A new political arithmetic to make sociology useful? Comments on a debate', The British Journal of Sociology Volume 55 Issue 3.
Hammersley, M. (2004) 'Action Research: A contradiction in terms', Oxford Review of Education
Vol. 30, No. 2: 165--81.
Hammersley, M. (2004) 'Towards a usable past for qualitative research', International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 7(1): 19--27.
Hammersley, M (2005) 'The Myth of Research-based Practice: The Critical Case of Educational Inquiry', International Journal of Social Research Methodology Vol. 8, No. 4, pp. 317–330
Hammersley, M. (2005) 'Countering the 'new orthodoxy' in educational research: a response to Phil
Hodkinson', British Educational Research Journal Vol. 31, No. 2, pp. 139-155.
Hammersley, M (2005) 'What can the literature on communities of practice tell us about educational
research? Reflections on some recent proposals' ,International Journal of Research & Method in Education Vol. 28, No. 1 pp. 5–21.
Hammersley, M. (2005) 'Should Social Science Be Critical?', Philosophy of the Social Sciences, Vol. 35 No. 2, 175-195.
Hammersley, M. (2006) 'Philosophy’s Contribution to Social Science Research on Education', Journal of Philosophy of Education, Vol. 40, No. 2.
Hammersley, M.(2008)'Troubling criteria: a critical commentary on Furlong and Oancea's framework for
assessing educational research', British Educational Research Journal, 34:6,747 — 762.
(NB see the original by Furlong and Oancea here)
Hammersley, M  (2009)'Challenging Relativism: The Problem of Assessment Criteria',  Qualitative Inquiry :15(1) 3--29.

Foster, P., Gomm R & Hammersley, M. (2000) 'Case Studies as Spurious Evaluations: The example of the research on educational inequalities', British Journal of Educational Studies, 48(3): 215--30.