This paper analyses emergent issues from four conceptualisers of FEResearchmeet. FEResearchmeet claims to be a free and democratic model for building and supporting engagement with research, led by practitioners. The narratives presented seek to document and analyse FEResearchmeet as a movement across the first three years since its inception…

This paper analyses the conceptual significance of different methods of researching learning. Based largely upon our own experiences, we briefly compare the use of mini-ethnography, life history, cross-sectional surveys and existing panel survey data. We argue that there are strong affinities between each of these methods and significantly…

In the UK, very few studies have engaged older people in two or more elements of the research process (design, conduct, dissemination). Although there is a body of work on educational gerontology, there are few publications that specifically focus on training older people as coresearchers. This paper reports upon the training program undertaken as…

While there is growing attention to sexual minorities in adult education (AE) and human resource development (HRD) literature, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people have received very little attention in AE or in HRD research. This article captures methodological issues and concerns from LBGTQ-related research from…

This monograph looks first at opportunities provided by research in the adult literacy field and then identifies challenges to scientific research and suggests ways to address these challenges so that better evidence can be generated in the future. It has two goals that support the building of a stronger research base for the adult literacy…

This paper advances a point of view concerning the differences between basic and applied research in adult education, indicates some of the problems of conducting applied research studies, describes briefly an actual study which seems to exemplify certain problems and exigencies of applied research, and finally points up implications for the role…

Reviews the current state of research in Latin America to establish the predominant themes, methodologies, types of institutions and personnel, and how results are disseminated. Discusses the main strengths and weaknesses of adult education research in that region. (JOW)

Two practitioner inquiry networks demonstrate how learning in groups contributes to teacher development. Development occurs across the dimensions of intention, order, community, and voice. (Author/SK)

Dominant values of conventional research are rigor, precision, elegance, objectivity, and verifiability. Constructivist research is valued for being responsive, rich, emergent, subjective, and creative. Practitioner research is useful, reflective in action, interactive, and intentional. (SK)

Finding that British researchers are believed to use qualitative methods while North Americans favor quantitative measurement in adult education enquiry, the author examines substantive research concerns and research publication in the United States, Britain, and Canada and concludes that there is some validity to the stereotype. (Availability:…

Describes a participatory research project that involved adult education practitioners in the Caribbean in collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data. Explains how participatory research is the process by which knowledge is generated and skills are acquired, by both the researcher and the researched. (SK)

This article discusses the dearth of qualitative and quantitative research in "Religious Education." There is a growing concern in educational journals that the field must respond to the needs of practitioners and publish what has been called "really useful knowledge" (Johnson 1988, 21-22). In "Religious Education," 86.5% of the published articles…

This paper describes a program in which parents learned about becoming educational researchers and developed research skills they could use for school improvement. Parent-U-Turn is a parent organization in Lynwood, California and surrounding communities that has worked with researchers from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) to…

As part of a symposium on challenges and problems of adult education researchers in different settings, recent research activities at one private independent research organization were examined. Three projects of the American Instituties for Research (AIR) were reviewed, all relating to adult development and aging. The first examined career…

Consists of two articles delineating (1) the role of the monitor of a major personnel training project and (2) the impact of personnel training on entrepreneurial advancement. The author monitored a project at an industrial firm in Finland and draws on this experience. (CH)