This article is based on the premise that there is inadequate attention to the link between theory and applied research in social gerontology. The article contends that applied research studies do not often or effectively employ a theoretical framework and that theory-based articles, including theory-based research, are not often focused on…

The critical issue Connor, Gallagher, Ferri, Dudley-Marling, and others have put before everyone in this special issue of the "Learning Disability Quarterly" is the hegemony of quantitative methodologies and subsequent marginalization of qualitative research. On this the author is in full agreement. When the human sciences use only quantitative…

Hybrid and online courses and advances in assistive technologies make accommodating students with disabilities ever-changing, requiring innovation. This reality, coupled with students' reluctance to disclose disabilities, points toward a need for replacing accommodations directed at those with disabilities with universal design whereby they…

This article takes a phenomenological approach to understanding embodiment in relation to teaching and learning taking place in movement contexts. Recently a number of studies have pointed to the potential that phenomenology has to understand the meanings and experiences of moving subjects. By presenting two examples of our own work on embodied…

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…

Persson's (2012a) article offers a timely contribution to the science of giftedness through questioning the validity of research emerging from within this paradigm. Using evidence from a number of disciplines he demonstrates that what is regarded as gifted behaviour in one culture could be regarded as quite ordinary within another. He therefore…

The author finds the target article "Cultural Variation and Dominance in a Globalised Knowledge Economy" to be a thoughtful exploration of an important topic for all social scientists, certainly including those who study gifted development and education. Roland S. Persson (2012a) raises many questions about policy and practice in giftedness…

In the eighteenth century, the German pedagogical discourse took place within the broader framework of an international circulation of pedagogical concepts and ideas. The trans-cultural nature of these intellectual exchanges is particularly evident in the thoughts and writings on female education. Translations of books and essays played a…

The rise of service-learning in higher education has been critiqued as little more than community service that encourages students to "do good," but fails to generate original scholarship or social change. In this article, we argue that service-learning gives geographers the opportunity to challenge these critiques, by demonstrating the practical…

Felfe and Franke share the authors' belief that contingent workers play an increasing role among the workforce in general (Desiderio, Djibo, & Price, 2010). As the authors state, the increase of temporary work is primarily due to economic demands. Particularly when confronted with seasonal or economic fluctuations, contingent work may be a means…

Storm, Tressoldi, and Di Risio (2010) rely on meta-analyses to justify their claim that the evidence for psi is consistent and reliable. They manufacture apparent homogeneity and consistency by eliminating many outliers and combining databases whose combined effect sizes are not significantly different--even though these combined effect sizes…

The TLRP has provided a wealth of information that can form the foundation of conversations and debate for researchers, policy-makers and practitioners. This paper focuses on two of the issues raised by James and Pollard: (1) the methodology that they used to analyse and synthesise the learning from massive amounts of data into a coherent and…

This article's point of departure is that the nature and merits of both action research and communities of practice are contested: for example, Martyn Hammersley has argued that action research may be a contradiction in terms and that communities of practice may mean the end of educational research as a discrete discipline. In response to his…

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…

In this article, the author talks about the proper place of theory in educational history and shares his comments on the essays by Eileen Tamura, Carolyn Eick, and Roland Coloma. Eileen Tamura's positing of most educational historians as practitioners of narrative history is surely on the mark. She invites historians of education to investigate…