Open research practices are relevant to all stages of research, from conceptualization through dissemination. Here, we discuss key facets of open research, highlighting its rationales, infrastructures, behaviors, and challenges. Part I conceptualizes open research and its rationales. Part II identifies challenges such as the speed and cost of open…

Meeting appropriate ethical standards for research involving human participants, mean ensuring confidentiality. It is assumed that the research participant will accept the safeguarding protocols necessary to ensure confidentiality. This assumption however oversimplifies the variation of motivations that goes into participants' decisions to…

Qualitative studies in the domain of physics education research have become more common in the last several decades. Methodologically, this has been marked by an expansion of the types of data collected in physics education research (PER): namely, in the use of individual and group interviews, problem-solving sessions, and classroom…

Given pandemic restrictions on learning and research, autoethnography has recently garnered renewed attention as a potential alternative. Drawing on our experiences as instructor and student, we make the case that autoethnography is not only relevant to pandemic-era teaching but could also offer an effective pedagogical tool to critically engage…

Recent findings from social attention research suggest direct engagement with others is a necessary condition for the social cognitive development of both autistic children and their typically developing peers. These findings come from studies that have used eye-tracking technology and paradigms for measuring social attention in naturalistic,…

This article examines the use of the repertory grid technique as a method to investigate learner perceptions in language education research. An important issue raised in this article concerns how far a researcher's agenda may be unintentionally imposed onto a research study which is investigating learners' perceptions, and how far the ensuing data…

This perspective paper analyses the possibilities and challenges of using cheminformatics as a context for STEM education. The objective is to produce theoretical insights through a SWOT analysis of an authentic educational cheminformatics project where future chemistry teachers engineered a physical 3D model using cheminformatics software and a…

Design based research (DBR) has become a popular methodology for exploring various aspects of mathematics education due to its focus on theoretical development and practical implementation. Drawing on a recent meta-study into trends in mathematically focused DBR studies, this paper explores how this method is being used in comparison to its…

Over the past decade, public awareness of transgender people has rapidly increased. Yet people who do not conform to the expectations of their assigned gender often face social prejudice and structural marginalization. Within this context, an increasing number of education researchers have shown interest in taking up questions related to…

Since the emergence of postcolonialism, there has been a call for epistemic decolonisation in the African scientific community. Paradigmatic backgrounds are key to defining belief systems that guide research investigations -- not only in choice of approach, but also in the contextualisation and execution of research designs. Researchers' limited…

The field of bullying research deals with methodological issues and concerns affecting the comprehension of bullying and how it should be defined. For the purpose of designing relevant and powerful bullying prevention strategies, this article argues that instead of pursuing a universal definition of what constitutes bullying, it may be of greater…

This is a methodological paper that seeks to encourage thought about the nature of auto-ethnography and which types of auto-ethnography might be most worthwhile within educational research. It reviews the various types of auto-ethnographic writing within education, focusing initially on the accounts of the process of doing educational research…

The threshold concept framework is a key contemporary theory in pedagogy. The core idea is that 'threshold concepts' are distinctively 'troublesome' for students and act as gatekeepers to their disciplines. No doubt the theory is compelling because there is surely something right about this. Student difficulty with conceptual material is familiar…

This paper explores the prospects of combining Grounded Theory (GT) and Action Research (AR) methodologies to spark further methodological discussion. GT and AR methodologies are sometimes used together in the same study without a discussion of their methodological compatibility. However, different iterations of GT and various forms of AR may…

In this article, I explore the challenges of undertaking insider research as a Widening Participation university practitioner and positioning myself as lead researcher with three academic co-researchers. The action research process provided the fertile environment for our complex academic: non-academic relationships to shift into more equitable…