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…

Rogoff (2003) argues that "Human development is a cultural process….People develop as participants in cultural communities" (p. 3). Children develop within families, and different cultures reflect differences in how they structure activity for this development. For example, middle class North American families generally would not permit…

The author's academic journey in learning to mentor and be co-mentored involved three rites of passage. In this reflective essay (invited paper), the author acknowledges his most influential co-mentors--former dissertation supervisees and long since colleagues--who helped form the "we" that is him. The first phase coincided with a…

Considering Canada's Tri-Council statement on the ethical conduct for research involving human subjects, we discuss some of the ethical challenges of doing research on teaching and learning in which one's own students and teaching act as the context of such scholarly activity. We advocate establishing basic principles based in the complex…

This paper is a self-study in which a university teacher educator studies her practice. She creates a space for alternate ways of representing forms of knowledge from diverse cultural backgrounds, including Indigenous, and for their accreditation in the Academy. As she develops a way of thinking that is appropriate for getting closer to…

This paper discusses my position as an Arab Muslim woman researcher who is affiliated with a Western university, researching Arab Muslim Canadian women. I discuss how reflexivity has emerged as an element of my research endeavours. Various notions of reflexivity in educational research have been expressed in the literature, yet I focus on what it…

This paper draws on the experiences of 20 academic developers as they examine the proposition that the organisation and work of academic development in higher education is fragmented. Academic development was seen to have neither the status of a field nor a profession, and there was recognised tension between an institutionally focused service…

This paper looks at the design process of an inquiry-based mathematics and science unit in two urban grade nine classes. Three teachers who teach in an urban, all-girls' junior high school collaborated with math/science and educational experts to design and implement the unit. Results showed the following: teachers needed to be flexible regarding…

When asked to explain why so many urban schools show unsatisfactory results on academic or social measures, principals routinely and quickly turn to descriptions of parents. In other words, when seeking to explain why work within a school is so difficult or why reform initiatives have been unsuccessful, many principals point outside the school.…

Although the mainstream media and education systems are key institutions that perpetuate various social inequalities, spaces exist--both within and beyond these institutions--where adults and youth resist dominant, damaging representations and improvise new images. In this article, we address why educational researchers and educators should attend…

The phrases "best practice" and "evidence-based" are much in the air, and they imply that the answers are already out there. We just have to choose the right ones. Educational research in this connection is a kind of product testing. The U.S. Office of Education has made it a policy that rigorous product testing is the only…

Queer theory and action research together offer possibilities for exposing the deep injustice of both homophobia and heterosexism. Underpinning identity categories of sexuality and gender, these forms of social injustice lurk in schools, families, religions, communities, and nation-states. For educators and educational researchers, addressing…

Educational researchers have examined the effect of achievement goals on student performance, and suggest that both mastery goals and performance-approach goals are beneficial, whereas performance-avoidance goals are harmful. Recent research proposes that these results may not be generalized in the domain of music. The purpose of the present study…

Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) indexes and microfiche have earned a position as major sources of information for educational researchers and practitioners in Canada. Their widespread use has been facilitated by the development of computerized search services, first using batch systems and more recently on-line interactive…

The purpose of this report on educational research activities in Quebec was to provide a basis for planning and coordinating this research in the province. Four different populations: deans, professors of education, graduate students in education, and educational researchers in contexts other than faculties of education were studied. The general…