Looking for an a appropriate object for educational research: a reflection on three presentations

In this paper the author offers some reflections which arose from attending the 1993 MERGA conference in Brisbane. The reflections are organised around the theme of 'understanding the object of educational research.' The intellectual currents set in motion by post-modern thinking are tending to undermine, and show the structural limitations of, psychological studies of learning for advancing the understanding of pedagogy. The author contends that once the psychological subject is seen as a false construct, in respect of the goals of pedagogy, then new objects and methods are opened for doing educational research.