In commenting on the work of Kelly, Bannister and Fransella (1980: 53) note that research may be defined as the process whereby people try to make sense of things. In order to achieve this, the importance of working with rather than on subjects is stressed as is the need for researchers to explicitly state, as far as they are able, the constructs within which they believe themselves to be working. Cohen et al note that critical theory and critical educational research have a substantive agenda: for example, examining and interrogating: the relationships between school and society - how schools perpetuate or reduce inequality; the social construction of knowledge and curricula, who defines worthwhile knowledge, what ideological interests this serves, how power is produced and reproduced through education. (2007: 27) Underlying both of these assertions is the implication that in order effectively to look outwards, the researcher must be prepared to look inwards; in order to move forwards, one must critically assess the past. Such a project requires critical thinking, that is, thinking that embodies the attributes of `quality' thinking based on a sound knowledge of context and resulting in reasoned judgements regarding what to believe and how to act. (Bailin 1998: 145)