We concluded our November editorial (Cai et al., 2018b) with a promise to consider research paradigms that could bring us closer to the new world we have envisioned where research is intertwined with practice. We will call the paradigms we have in mind research pathways to avoid the range of complicated connotations often applied to the term paradigm. By research pathways in education, we mean the collection of assumptions that define the purposes of educational research, the principles that differentiate research from other educational activities, and the guidelines for how research should be conducted.