ABSTRACT
In this chapter I shall discuss some of the problems we have encountered and lessons learnt in building research into the programmes and agencies of curriculum development which have been such a marked feature on the
educational landscape since the mid 1950s. From a consideration of this experience we may better appreciate the linkages between research and development (R & D) in the curriculum field , especially the uses of research in the current interest in qualitative methods and programmes of school improvement. In illustrating my argument I shall draw very largely from the experience of the Schools Council fo r Curriculum and Examinations for England and Wales (SC), but shall refer also to R&D in some other settings.
