One of the greatest challenges in education today is to adapt and respond to a linguistically and culturally diverse world, and to combat social disintegration and discrimination. Participatory and collaborative action research represents an empowering and emancipatory approach to this challenge because the "target groups" become…

Researchers, policy makers, and practitioners share a sincere interest in improving the human condition. Academics may be tempted to fault irrationality, ideology, or ignorance for the failure of research to inform policy and practice more powerfully, but policy makers and practitioners want academics to tell them "what works" in order to find a…

Action research, explored in this book, is a seven-step process for improving teaching and learning in classrooms at all levels. Through practical examples, research tools, and easy-to-follow implementation strategies, this book guides readers through the action research process. The chapters are: (1) "What Is Action Research?"; (2) "How Is Action…

This introductory level text provides a background for understanding the uses of qualitative research in education, its theoretical and historical underpinnings, and specific methods of educational research. This revised edition places qualitative research into the context of current discussions of research methods and alternative ways of knowing.…

Three factors tend to remove classroom teachers from any direct benefits from formal research: (1) the difficulty of replicating the exact circumstances of the study in the classroom; (2) the scarcity of research which claims to show a "significant difference"; and (3) the complexity of reporting, in formal research journals and reports,…

This book is designed to provide knowledge about educational research and to help graduate students in education organize and conduct their own research. No prior familiarity with the principles, procedures, or terminology of educational research is required. Chapters are: (1) "Educational Research: Its Nature and Rules of Operation"; (2) "Types…

This study compared the ideas of researchers with those of practitioners in higher education regarding what is considered significant and useful literature in terms of content, methodology, and format. The findings were interpreted in terms of theories of action research and the quality movement. Data were compiled using focus groups of…

Asserts that, although research can be a powerful resource in guiding and fueling grass-roots social change, the community-based research enterprise often is contentious. Recommends collaborative research studies in which the researchers and practitioners work together from the project's inception. (CFR)

This paper identifies two broad types of "critical" ethnographic research. One type attempts to empower social actors by providing emic-oriented accounts which tend to emphasize the integrity of their constructs, thus laying the groundwork for a redistribution of social power. The other type attempts to combine analysis of phenomenal, micro-level…

Nineteen articles on the status of the relationship among educational research, policy, and practice around the world are collected in the 1985 edition of the "World Yearbook of Education." Contributors address the development of national policies on educational research in countries in North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia, and…

This issue presents two articles on the use of data to improve results for students with disabilities. The first paper examines how researchers supported by the Office of Special Education Programs are discovering innovative uses of scientifically derived information in instructional and administrative decision making as well as strategies for…