Kensington High School is a neighborhood school located in the Kensington area of Philadelphia. After a successful campaign led by Youth United for Change, Kensington High School was broken up into three small schools, with a fourth to be built. Youth researchers explored the relationships between adults and students in all three of the new small…

Introduction: This paper discusses how exploring the research process in-depth and over time contributes to a fuller understanding of interactions with various representations of information. Method. A longitudinal ethnographic study explored decisions made by two informants involved in scholarly research. Relevance assessment and information…

Presents a brief overview of good research design and related statistical concepts in deliberately non-technical language and argues that an awareness of the basic principles of valid research on the part of teachers and researchers is necessary to put the findings of language and education research into proper perspective. (Author/CB)

This paper examines young peoples' ideas and their dreams of the future. It is part of a longitudinal study in which students at four schools in Australia were interviewed twice a year during their time in secondary school. The paper claims that this long-term engagement with individuals heightened specificity of the dreams, though it was…

This paper examines issues and areas of concern for the educational researcher moving from the relative safety of academic research to the more perilous arena of practice-oriented or action-oriented qualitative research. The first question is one of purity or objectivity: giving credibility to research results by imposing adequate rigor on methods…

This article looks at the lessons that a novice qualitative researcher learned from interviewing an adolescent on AIDS education. The data informs us of what can be missed when adolescents are surveyed and not talked "to." As Toni informs us, "They should teach you this." The article points out how reciprocity, responsibility,…

Reflects on some of the problems encountered in the authors' experimental approach to a study of reading comprehension. Discusses the limitations of experimental research, and presents an alternative to experimental or quantitative research, focusing on the relationship between teachers and learners as they interact in classrooms. (MM)

Argues that grounded theory, an explicit approach to the analysis of qualitative data, is ideal for applied settings and can be adapted to the limited, sporadic opportunities available to faculty and faculty developers who focus on classroom interaction and social relations. Introduces key features and techniques of this approach. (JB)

Describes the evolution of the qualitative-quantitative debate, and suggests that educational researchers learn to live with the necessary tensions resulting from accepting elements of each approach. The proposed critical educational research model is illustrated through examples that go beyond a positivist-interpretivist split. (SLD)

A multiple-case, "tracer" study was undertaken involving 11 research projects of the "Education et Vie Active" (Education and the Active Life)--a national vocational education program in Switzerland--to assess the importance of contacts between researchers and practitioners. Iterative data from interviews, observations, and…

Discusses issues of intimacy in qualitative research raised by Harry Wolcott's Brad trilogy in connection with Reba Page's use of the trilogy to teach about validity in interpretive research methods. Focuses on intimacy in research, relational reflexivity, power in relationships, relational ethics, evolutionary understandings of relationships, and…

There is a growing sense of frustration among members of the science education research community that results from the fact that the impact of research in science education on classroom practice has been disappointing. In this theoretical paper, the questions of relevance and accountability in science education research are first reviewed and…

This paper describes an ongoing case study of how a group of teachers are becoming researchers and what this means for their classrooms and the professional development school where they work. A collaborative teacher development program was implemented in Dickinson Elementary School of Albuquerque (New Mexico) which serves a mobile and mixed…

Introduction: The study explores the social processes that influence the construction by academic (information behaviour) researchers of the meaning(s) and significance of an author and her work prominent in the literature of their field (Brenda Dervin). Methods: Semi-structured qualitative interviews, based in part on the "Life-Line"…

The origin of effective schools research (ESR) is discussed in the context of a review of the pertinent literature. Debates over this topic have involved impacts on student achievement, methodology, the allegations of the Coleman report, and various effective school models. The Coleman Report (1966) concluded that family background was the…