From-the late 1990s there has been a movement in the United Kingdom towards evidencebased policy and practice in the public sector. In education this has found expression in the re-alignment of research priorities towards user engagement and 'renewed interest in the 'teacher-as-researcher'. The promotion of evidence-based practice is often based on claims that it will enhance the status of the profession and strengthen relationships between the policy, research and practitioner communities. Drawing on the theoretical resources of policy sociology and the Foucauldian concept of governmentality, this research offers a critical examination of the promotion of 'teaching as a research-based profession' (Hargreaves, 1996). The current articulation of teacher research is placed within broader debates surrounding the re-professionalising of teaching.