An insight into the education and social research community: eight researchers representing contrasting approaches from the UK, New Zealand and North America explain what they do, why they do it, its methodological basis and perceived outcomes. The main themes of their accounts are analysed and discussed by the editors, both of whom have considerable experience of teaching research methodology and methods. Although "Educational Research in Practice" makes contemporary debate about relativism and the relationship between research and the improvement of social practice more accessible, this in no way disregards the complexity of competing arguments.