Over the years, the author has drawn on a variety of friends, both fictional and real, to help him make specific points when writing professional papers and books for teachers, administrators, and researchers. This included Snoopy and other Peanut characters to describe how struggling writers compose; Calvin and his imaginary tiger Hobbes to…

Adventure in school culture may seem quite a contradiction. In this paper I will present arguments on the idea that outdoor adventure learning contributes to formal education and is compatible with school practice and goals. This paper is based on research conducted for my thesis. The doctoral degree was completed at Oulu University, Finland, in…

When the author writes, her intention is to inform readers and to invite debate and discussion (or at least individual reflection) that continues after the work has been read and put aside. As a scientist with an interest in education, the author now feels able to submit some writings to a non-science educational journal, such as "Teaching in…

Inconsistencies within the literature result in teachers not having sufficient guidance to develop their humour use in support of learning without risking their professionalism. This article argues for more comprehensive evidence to guide teachers' use of humour, based on mixed methodological approaches. The case is also made for the Interpersonal…

In this commentary, we demonstrate how the potential outcomes framework can help understand the key identification assumptions underlying causal mediation analysis. We show that this framework can lead to the development of alternative research design and statistical analysis strategies applicable to the longitudinal data settings considered by…

Research suggests that self-control or self-regulation may play a role in the connections among spirituality, health, well-being, and social behavior. Within the framework of social-cognitive developmental theory, we explore the question of how do children and adolescents learn to think of themselves as gendered and spiritual beings within the…

Shifts in the ways that science is being undertaken and marshaled toward social change argue for a new kind of professional competence. Taking the view that the science of social work is centrally about the relationship of research to social impact, the authors extend Fong's focus on transdisciplinary and translational approaches to science,…

Ralph LaRossa's (2012) article on the multidimensional world of qualitative research provides family scientists with a set of innovative tools to guide writing and reviewing. He proffered an engaging challenge: to view the "Journal of Marriage and Family" ("JMF") as a meeting place of scholars, a thought community (Zerubavel, 1997), even a culture…

In this article, the author stresses the danger of losing the concept of education in favour of lower notions of instruction and training. By "training" he means a process that suggests the acquisition of skills and the enhancing of performance capacities. By "instruction" he means learning facts and new information--the results of retention. Too…

Offering an Indigenous perspective, this commentary discusses collaborative research, shared meaning making, and knowledge building specific to child development, and reflects on social, cultural, and historical aspects that influence these processes. Drawing upon experiences of developing a collaborative research approach with which to engage…

Coburn and Turner (this issue) present an intriguing framework for understanding how data has come to be used in the current high accountability environments in education. In this framework, they connect various processes of data use within organizational and political contexts. Data use is presented using an ecological perspective that deepens…

This paper addresses an important problem that may really be a pseudoproblem perpetuated by a current artificial or even political need to isolate researchers, evaluators, and theorists and put them in conceptual-methodological boxes. In this paper, we argue that scholars of all kinds should focus on the nouns (i.e., research, evaluation, theory)…

Charles Gelso has had a major influence in counseling psychology with his contributions to the literature in many areas such as research methodology, research training, psychotherapy outcome, and the therapeutic relationship as well as in his work as an editor and as a teacher and mentor. This interview with Gelso highlights the early experiences,…

The article argues that the emotional framing of interviews plays a major role in shaping the content of interviews. Drawing on the psychoanalytic theory of Jessica Benjamin and Luce Irigaray, the article describes how interviews can be experienced as either conquest or communion. Qualitative researchers typically focus on the cognitively…

Using the notion of a suggestion, or rather charting the life of suggestions, this article considers the happenings of chance and embodiment as the "problems that got away." The life of suggestions helps us to ask how connectivities are made, how desire functions, and how "immanence" rather than "transcendence" can open up the politics and ethics…