Argues for an institutional approach to theory and research on situated learning, which would allow for a different frame of reference than the concept of economic rationality as the objective of workplace learning. (SK)

This article discusses the way in which social identities structure the learning processes of students in two subjects in the Dutch secondary school curriculum--Care and Technology. It analyses interviews with 23 students and their teachers with a view to explaining the disappointing results in these subjects in terms of breaking through gender…

This article aims to contribute to the debate of how theoretical concepts can be operationalised when researching educational issues. Specifically, it examines the application of the concepts of social and cultural capital in empirical research seeking to provide explanations for educational processes relating to post-secondary school choice…

Recent work integrating Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) with Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) forms a basis for systematizing action research in higher education. This basis strengthens what are often otherwise its methodological weaknesses, namely, the disconnection between analysis and subsequent plans for action and the…

Like Norman Denzin and Yvonna Lincoln, and many others, the author "wants a social science that is committed up front to issues of social justice, equity, non-violence, peace, and universal human rights" (Denzin & Lincoln, 2005). Educational research, as she and the three authors whose papers make up this symposium of…

Discusses concepts and assumptions underlying actor-network theories and the new literacy studies. Identifies lessons for adult education research derived from sociological approaches to scientific knowledge, which examine power circulating in networks of human and nonhuman entities. (Contains 36 references.) (SK)

Background: Research on PE indicates that the subject is marked by rather stable gendered patterns of behaviour and perceptions of the subject. This paper marks an attempt to outline a theoretical approach that makes it possible to interpret what is going on in the gym in a way that might challenge the reproduction of gender. Purpose: To…

Children face many important changes in the first eight years of life, including different learning centres, social groups, roles and expectations. Their ability to adapt to such a dynamic and evolving environment directly affects their sense of identity and status within their community over the short and long term. In particular, the key turning…

"Change Matters," written by leading scholars committed to social justice in English education, provides researchers, university instructors, and preservice and inservice teachers with a framework that pivots social justice toward policy. The chapters in this volume detail rationales about generating social justice theory in what Freire calls "the…

This response to McKenzie suggests that the issues of representivity, legitimacy and politics, inscribed within an institutional continuism characteristic of modernity within the McKenzie discourse, could well be recast within a reflexive view informed by insights derived with developing social theory. It briefly overviews the struggle for human…

Bourdieu's social theory offers a way of understanding some of the most important features of the field of educational research, while also providing educational researchers with a rich conceptual apparatus for their practice. This article addresses both of these methodological themes and the connections between them. We begin by outlining some…

This author introduces a framework to guide researchers into a process of racial and cultural awareness, consciousness, and positionality as they conduct education research. The premise of the argument is that dangers seen, unseen, and unforeseen can emerge for researchers when they do not pay careful attention to their own and others' racialized…

This article endeavors to pull together various theoretical approaches to curricular reform using the queer student body and queer theory as its starting point. The authors outline the implications of naming, and the possibilities and polemics of citizenship. Offering the intersections of queer theory and critical race theory as a model of…

This paper presents a review and assessment of existing theoretical accounts to explain differentials in access to education and training in advanced economies. These theories tend to focus on the analysis of the influence of a set of economic, sociological and political variables on access to education. Existing theories are criticized on two…

This paper distinguishes school ethnography from traditional ethnography and suggests several reasons why school ethnography has not yet secured a place in the research repertoire of most social studies educators. Concludes that social studies researchers should use school ethnography to develop better understandings of the daily patterns of…