What do we actually do when we research education policy and governance? Why do we tame the messy hinterland of research into smooth accounts and what do we lose in the process? In this volume, distinguished scholars in education policy and governance research discuss how the practice of methods is messy, subjective, and provisional. They approach…

In this case study, I provide the methodologic approaches I used to investigate four in-service biology teachers' perspectives when using science instruction to address racial stereotypes within secondary science education. This case study provides practical advice for novice qualitative researchers who wish to conduct and design an intervention…

Within the complex processes and mechanisms underlying knowledge creation, researchers tend to give due recognition to the role, positioning and prior experiences of the researcher who is ultimately the author of research and creator of a new knowledge. This case study focuses on the issues of insiderness and outsiderness as methodological tools…

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…

Are you using interviews in your classroom? Carolyn Frank's new book on interviewing is a powerful tool for teachers and educational researchers. Through an anthropological frame, this book explains techniques for ethnographic interviews and observations in and out of the classroom. Carolyn Frank shows how teachers in particular can use…

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…

Addressing the issue of how people come to gain knowledge in the field of composition, this book is concerned with modes of inquiry--the whole series of steps an inquirer follows in making a contribution to a field of knowledge, and with methodological communities--groups of inquirers more or less united by their allegiance to one such mode of…

Over the past decade there has been a substantive change in the role of practitioners in educational research. Grassroots efforts in action research highlight the importance of educators' own understanding of their practice. This book, which stems from a school-university collaboration, describes the theory and methods for conducting…

This book presents information on action research for teachers and administrators. Chapter 1, Reflective Professional Practice, discusses reflective professionals, urges active use of solitary dialogue and personal journals to enhance reflectiveness, delineates concerns of maturing educators, and summarizes meditative steps of reflective practice…

This guide was written for graduate students and is intended to provide a grounding in research methods, particularly research in education, and to be a useful ongoing reference source. Each chapter was written by a professor, senior lecturer, or research specialist from a university in England. Part A, "The Concept of Research,"…

This book of collected papers and essays addresses issues of research in multicultural education and aims to facilitate production of this research and to meet the needs of researchers in this area. Part 1, "The Marginalization of Multicultural Discourse," contains three papers on the barriers, needs, and limitations inherent in doing…

The idea of the teacher as researcher is presented from several different perspectives--the teacher's, the administrator's, and the university based researcher's--to convey a sense of what it means to be a teacher/researcher. The following chapters are included: (1) The Teacher as Researcher--A Historical Perspective (Mary W. Olson); (2) The Door…

This book examines issues and methods for conducting research into the educational resource environment in colleges and universities. That environment is defined as whatever is used to facilitate the learning process, including learning space, support staff, and teaching staff. Chapter 1 is an introduction to the series and lays out the process of…

This text is designed to enable educators to design, conduct, and report research and evaluation in a way that transforms special education by addressing the needs of persons with disabilities as heterogeneous, cultural groups. The book explores ways to adapt those research methods to the special education context by providing a framework for…

This book examines issues in studying equal opportunity in colleges and universities, especially those in the United Kingdom, and methods for conducting research into equal opportunity issues. It is intended to provide a framework of ideas and starting points for research. Most of the techniques suggested are forms of participant research on a…