This paper discusses high-school students' perspectives on their participation in educational survey research. Students responded to a Likert-style questionnaire about their school's social-educational portrait and were invited at its end to briefly comment on the survey itself. Qualitative analysis showed that a sizable proportion of students…

"The term 'research' is inextricably linked to European imperialism and colonialism. The word itself 'research' is probably one of the dirtiest words in the Indigenous world's vocabulary" (Smith, 1999, p. 1). For many Aboriginal communities educational research can be seen with suspicion. In Aboriginal education much of the research is…

This article discusses competing perspectives on the value of the General Educational Development (GED) credential. Although scholars and journalists debate the worth of the credential, urban youth continue to pursue the GED, especially as proxy for inadequate schooling. Using qualitative data from a participatory action research project, the…

Educational researchers and teachers are well aware that misconceptions--erroneous ideas that differ from the scientifically accepted ones--are very common amongst students. Daily experiences, creative and perceptive thinking and science textbooks give rise to students' misconceptions which lead them to draw erroneous conclusions that become…

The author began her career teaching kindergarten. All 38 of her students showed up to school excited to be there and eager to learn. When she moved to the middle school, it was an entirely different story. She was stunned when most of her students didn't care whether or not they were successful academically. She encountered the same attitudes…

This article investigates the identity negotiations of a group of Korean-born Korean American (KBKA) high school students. One of the major tensions that arise from within the Korean American community is who should be considered an "authentic" member. Therefore, in this article I illustrate (a) the way American-born Korean Americans' (ABKAs')…

Educational researchers have suggested that the tension between the learner-centred and teacher-centred pedagogies represents a real classroom issue that influences teaching and learning. This issue may be particularly significant in East-Asian countries such as Taiwan due to some cultural influences. For example, teacher authority is highly…

A large proportion of American students are not psychologically connected or engaged to what is occurring in their classes; in addition, they fail to take school seriously, have lost interest in school, and do not value or seek out success (Steinberg, Brown, & Dornbusch, 1996). In addition, the relationship in a mathematics classroom between…