This paper begins by raising a question about the purposes of research in drama in education and reflects on aspects of discourse in the past concerning how and why writers about drama in education choose to describe its aesthetic processes. Whilst it recognises the debate about drama in education's place within the umbrella of applied theatre, it goes on to raise particular concern about a current tendency within some quarters of drama in education to explain itself in terms drawn from beyond the discipline, arguing that this is a damaging trend. Finally, the paper urges the field to continue to develop its own explicative vocabulary.