I concern with reconsideration of the profile of educational research in former communist Eastern European countries. Particular focus is given to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. In many aspects, these countries have succeeded well in integrating their educational research activity into the Western - or 'old' - European tradition. However, this success is much more visible in the field of empirical research in restricted areas than in fundamental philosophical questioning of educational issues. Several interrelated reasons lay behind this tendency. First, the former communist Eastern European countries still largely inherit the Soviet approach, which reduced educational research to prediction of students’ psychological abilities and elaboration of technical solutions. Second, general publication practice in high- impact international journals indicates that production of empirical research findings in the manner of natural sciences has turned to be much more successful for Eastern European scientists than the concern with broad philosophical issues. Third, plethora of well- financed but often disintegrated international research projects currently available for the Eastern European countries has split educationalists into mutually disinterested research communities, which are much concerned with international co-operation in their own restricted field, but not with the wider interdisciplinary and cross-community co-operation of researchers. While such research practice may be fruitful in producing high- impact journal articles, it unreasonably restricts the scope of educational research and diverts attention from many of its important aspects. More emancipative attitude is needed in Eastern European educational research, focusing on generation and broad-scale reflection of new ideas rather than on mere observance of well-established models. As a theoretical framework, I apply the Steve Fuller’s epistemological project labelled as ‘social epistemology’. This project, in turn, largely relies upon Karl Popper’s critical rationalist epistemology. Essential for these epistemological concepts is the principle that each individual researcher is bound to challenge existing conceptual framework of his or her research practice. These two epistemological concepts are in sharp contrast with what Thomas Kuhn characterises as 'normal science'. I argue that more or less consciously, too much of Eastern European educational research has been conducted in the Kuhnian 'puzzle- solving' manner, within the framework of taken-for-granted 'normal science' and without questioning the existing paradigm. According to Fuller and Popper, on the other hand, challenging of existing paradigm is an essentially public enterprise, which obligates a researcher to be understandable for the widest possible international audience. For the Eastern European educational research community, this principle reminds that rather than eschew publishing in international professional journals, there should be taken a new and broadened look at the purposes of publication.

I analyze peer-reviewed journal papers. First, there are papers concerning with development of educational research practices in Eastern Europe. Second, there are papers of Steve Fuller, concerning principles of social epistemology.

Not only the domestic practice of Eastern European countries would need a more comprehensive determination of educational research, but it would also be useful for the whole European educational research community to learn from the philosophical reflection of educational practices of these countries. A promising example is the question of how fundamental educational concepts such as rationality, equal educational opportunities, or multiculturalism can be interpreted in the borderline of different – and sometimes competing – cultural spaces (Anglo-Saxon, Continental European, and Russian).