Randomized controlled trials are a special case of designs using an unbiased instrument to take care of confounders even if they are unmeasured or unknown. Another example of studies using instrumental variables is the Mendelian experiment and Directed Acyclic Graphs show the power of such designs to enhance the internal validity. It is argued…

In this interview, author, researcher, and professor D. Jean Clandinin reflects on her many years of experience as a narrative inquiry researcher, teacher, and teacher educator. She believes that growing up in a large, extended family with rooted engagement in the community set the stage for her later interest in narrative inquiry. She describes…

In volume 103 of "Modern Language Journal," Stephen May suggested that the "multilingual turn" has not fully delivered on its promises, pointing out second language acquisition (SLA) researchers' continued focus on parallel monolingualisms rather than on dynamic bi/multilingualism, the lack of theorization of historicity in…

In this paper we are explicitly in conversation with Doug Foley's recently published paper in "AEQ." Given our shared commitment to the linkages between intersectionality and broader social and economic arrangements, two noted ethnographers argue that the paradigmatic shift highlighted by Foley demands detailed attention to what…

Informal science education is a broad field of research marked by fuzzy boundaries, tensions, and muddles among many disciplines, making for an unclear future trajectory (or trajectories) for the field of study. In this commentary, I unpack some of the hidden dimensions, tensions and challenges the five articles raise or point to implicitly in…

This essay argues that there is a need for higher education researchers to become aware of methodological nationalism (MN) and take steps to reframe their scholarship in new ways. It illuminates two characteristics of MN prevalent in higher education research and suggests that although a few researchers have attempted to move beyond MN in the…

The Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) represents teachers and researchers of composition and communication in all possible genres, media, contexts, and exigencies; for the purpose of these guidelines, "writers" and "writing" will be all-encompassing, and the term "researcher" will refer to…

In this article, the author reflects on the transitions she has navigated since 2005 and offers insight into elements of research relationships. As she guides and accompanies a new generation of qualitative researchers planning and experiencing their fieldwork, the need for writing that addresses the complexities of "the intersubjectivity of the…

In "Towards a systemic theory of gifted education," A. Ziegler and S.N. Phillipson have proposed a systemic approach to gifted education. For this approach, they built a model that they call an "actiotope" model. As they explained in the article, an actiotope consists of the acting individual and the environment with which he or she interacts. The…

Causal prescriptive statements are valued in the social sciences when there is the goal of helping people through interventions. The articles in this special issue cover different methods for testing causal prescriptive statements. This commentary identifies both virtues and liabilities of these different approaches. We argue that it is extremely…

In the UK, dissatisfaction with the research process as experienced by people with physical disability was articulated by Paul Hunt in 1981 when he referred to the researchers who were invited to examine the institutionalised living he inhabited as "parasites." They adopted a detached approach that ignored the lived experiences of the…

This article offers reflections on the development of the Rubin causal model (RCM), which were stimulated by the impressive discussions of the RCM and Campbell's superb contributions to the practical problems of drawing causal inferences written by Will Shadish (2010) and Steve West and Felix Thoemmes (2010). It is not a rejoinder in any real…

In this article, the author comments on two highly cited articles and how they link to wider trends in higher education research. The two papers in question, Angela Brew's article from 2003, "Teaching and research: New relationships and their implications for inquiry-based teaching and learning in higher education" and Gerlese Akerlind's…

Writing studies has been an intellectual playground dominated by the "big kids." If we are to understand how writing becomes "relevant" to children as children, then we must study them, not for who they are becoming, but for who they are in life spaces shared with other children. This essay on the methodology entailed in…

In this article, the author challenges the validity and usefulness of the concept of "paradigm," as this term has been used in the social sciences generally, and specifically in the debates over research methods. He emphasizes that in criticizing what he sees as the misuse of the paradigm concept, he is not arguing for dismissing or ignoring…