In the past decade or so, there has been an increasing interest in employing a combination of archival and life history methods to understand the complexities of schooling. This book explores the history of the Beal Technical School in order to discuss the methods and problems involved in researching the story of an institution. It offers the…

Summarizes American public school finance history from the post World War II period to the present, focusing on the work of R.L. Johns, Edgar Morphet, and numerous colleagues. Discusses the conflict and schism in school finance during the 1970's resulting from demands for greater equity in the face of diminishing local financing choices. (MLH)

Discusses the relationship of ideology, social theory, critical analysis, hegemony, and objectivity in the work of educational historians. Comments that the training of educational historians often neglects intensive ideological analysis of historical research. Argues that study of historiographical methodology and consciousness of its dimensions…

Reviews past research in the area of early childhood education, points out current realities, and suggests future possibilities for investigation. Discussion of these possibilities centers on finding research support, gaining access to programs and securing the confidence of teachers and parents. (HOD)

This book explains the debates that bedevil education research--for example that it is low quality, or not scientific enough, or not useful enough--and shows how research in education must meet different demands in different places, times and conditions. A major part of the book provides detailed analyses and guidance to different areas in which…

Reports that Ellsworth Collings faked data and misrepresented his research in a 1923 study that became a hallmark of progressive education. "An Experiment with a Project Curriculum," supposedly documented a group of high school students' independent efforts at studying an outbreak of typhoid. Collings seriously misrepresented his input.…

Profiles the contributions of Fred Clarke whose lifelong career in international education focused on the the relationship between politics and education in a democratic context. Specifically addresses Clarke's early work with the development of vocational education in British South Africa, his subsequent disillusionment, and the effect this had…

Action research, a term first used in the 1940's by Kurt Lewin, implies the application of tools and methods of social science to immediate, practical problems, with the goals of contributing to theory and knowledge in the field of education and improving practice in the schools. Collaborative action research suggests that each group represented…