Paula Rothermel and Deborah Durbin; a couple of puzzling points

In Chapter 3 of her book on home education, Deborah Durbin collaborated with Paula Rothermel for a section about recent research. Since this was done with Dr. Rothermel's cooperation, it is reasonable to assume that she stands by all that was said there. The second paragraph states;

"In 2002, Paula Rothermel at the University of Durham set about exploring the aims and practices of home-educating families from different social backgrounds in the UK"

I cannot help but wonder in what sense Paula Rothermel, "Set about exploring the aims and practices..." in 2002. By that year, the work had been completed. As early as 1998, Dr Rothermel was delivering a paper at Exeter which gave chapter and verse of the PIPS assessments and NLP tests. It is true that her thesis was not actually published until 2002, but that is a little different from that being the year that she, "Set about exploring" ! The most likely explanation is that any work from before the turn of the millennium is starting to look a little elderly now. By claiming that she "Set about exploring" in 2002, it makes the whole thing look a little more modern and up to date.

Even more curiously, Dr. Rothermel introduces herself by writing of, "the findings by me, Educational Psychologist Dr Rothermel of the University of Durham". Now most people would take that as meaning that she was actually working for Durham University. According to the Human Resources department at the university though, Dr Rothermel stopped working there in 2006. The piece in the book for Deborah Durbin is marked as being copyrighted for Paula Rothermel in 2008. Was she actually "Dr Rothermel of the University of Durham" at that time? More research needed there.

This may well seem to dedicated home educators as mere nitpicking. However, when a particular piece of research is as extensively quoted as the 1997/1998 work in this case, it is vital that both it and it's author are examined closely before making any judgement upon the validity of the findings.