We consider the reality of change that affects education, which is associated to human variability and contingency, in order to identify, through theoretical, second-degree research, two main subjects of interest in the investigation on education during the last two decades. Results: Firstly, the description of the researched period as a crisis, about which the dialectical relationship between crisis and a reformist attitude is analysed, acknowledging that human ratio is, ultimately, correcta ratio. Secondly, the emergence and strenghtening of a concern for quality and its measurement, which is characterised as a reappearance of the modern concern for certainty. In both cases we identify a similar logic: the focus on a legitimation of educational processes, through some specific procedures at the expense of the reflection on their purposes. Discussion: We critically examine the logic underlying the requirements of this kind of educational practices, vindicating the role of imagination and prudence in teaching and research work –emphasising, then, their valuative dimension over a purely technical one. In contrast to this, we find proceduralism, which minimises the role of the teacher, so that it is something else –those procedures– which by itself leads to results.