Calls for educational policy and practice to be evidence-based have become insistent, yet there is ongoing contestation of the purpose and value of educational research. This paper addresses criticism of research from practitioners, politicians and policy makers and from within the research community itself. It examines the impact of the PBRF in New Zealand and the call for evidence-based practice here, in the UK and the US. It draws attention to research studies that are possible models for a principled and methodologically inclusive way forward and develops a set of principles for guiding future development in teacher education and education research.