A rich body of empirically grounded results and a solid theory base have often been viewed as signs of a mature discipline. Many disciplines have frequently debated what they should accept as legitimate kinds of theories, the proper roles of theory, and appropriate reference disciplines. Computing education research (CER) in particular has seen a…

In the latest two decades, there has been an increasing number of publications in education studies drawing on Actor-Network Theory (ANT). However, the uptake of ANT in education studies was not immediate, and the investigations on educational leadership through ANT have been rare. With the aim of promoting the study of educational leadership…

Education policy scholars must consider spatial theories and related methodologies. Spatial theories encourage rich understandings of education policy because education and place are intimately connected. This article shows how scholars can use "spatial imaginaries" to enhance knowledge of place and education policy. We explain these…

When talking about pedagogical theories, the first thing to stress is that it is difficult to find something new that has not been said before. In this field, much of what is called innovation comes from earlier times. Theories, conceptions and research have developed a great deal in the field of education. This means that educational systems face…

This article advances theories and scholarship focused on Indigenous educational research in the U.S. by engaging with the scholarship of Bryan Brayboy and Sandy Grande. This article provides an overview of the history of Indigenous education research and suggests that engaging with Indigenous-centered theories is essential for scholars…

The purpose of this manuscript is to illustrate the value and potential of critical approaches to quantitative research. We begin by providing our positionalities as scholars to situate ourselves within this content. Next, we overview quantitative criticalism and explore tensions inherent within this approach. Following, we discuss four…

Developmental theorists use their research to generate philosophies on children's development. They organize and interpret data based on a scheme to develop their theory. A theory refers to a systematic statement of principles related to observed phenomena and their relationship to each other. A theory of child development looks at the children's…

Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is known for its capacity to reveal ideology reproduced through discourse, but when applied to educational research, its focus on mere language constrains its utility for understanding and improving social reality. In this paper, through the example of a textbook study, we explore how CDA can be strengthened by…

Using Habermas's three human interests as a philosophical lens, a typology of emotion regulation was developed based on previous work. There are three theoretical perspectives on emotion regulation. The first perspective, "emotion regulation as steps," considers emotion regulation as an individual phenomenon and detachable entity. The…

Our contribution aims kick off a nuanced debate about theories and theorising in higher education research. Drawing on sociological literature that reflects on theories and theorising, we introduce the notion of 'theory work.' Theory work emphasises that theories are practical tools that can be used for a variety of purposes. To make different…

Theorizing the role that teachers play in national education systems in a period of rapid globalization has proven challenging for social scientists and comparative education theorists alike. In accounting for the manifold roles and functions of teachers over time, theory must account for both cultural persistence (institutionalization) as well as…

The concept of social capital has become in recent decades one of the most powerful ideas in social science. Having its roots in sociology and economics, it has consistently "settled" in almost all fields that deal with human functioning--pedagogy, social work, social anthropology, history, health sciences. This multiplicity of…

We note two possibilities for how our science might capitalize on advances in computing that harness and weave "big data" into the rich tapestry of how human development unfolds. First, we propose that the classic theoretical models that have guided developmental research since the 1970s and the hierarchical analytical models used to…

This article explains and illustrates an approach to the design of qualitative inquiry in education using a conceptual methodology informed by a realist ontology. It is written with research novices in mind, based on two observations we have made while supervising postgraduate students. The first is that the methodology literature education…

This theoretical article critically reflects on critical whiteness studies (CWS), particularly addressing the critique that CWS does not have racial theory and therefore cannot be considered a theoretical framework in which to analyse race. Reflecting on existing literature that interrogates whiteness in teacher education; we contend that to…