In this article, the author uses speculative essay to take up the metaphor of the blank canvas and critique it as part of a majoritarian narrative in educational research. To do this, the author applies the work of Sylvia Wynter (1992, 2003, 2020) and others on the creation of Knowledge and Man in terms of how canonical educational research…

Cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) appears to match the tenets of post-qualitative inquiry. However, post-qualitative inquiry is credited with being averse to method and to adopt post-modernist stances that are not consistent with CHAT's structured reading of social reality. Notwithstanding this, it is possible to propose an interpretation…

This paper explores the metaphor of the "Big Tent" in the context of the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL), highlighting the metaphor's limitations in capturing the complexities and tensions within the scholarly community. This paper delves into the conflicts arising from differing methodologies, epistemological stances, and…

As scholars work to decolonize educational research, new methodologies are needed. In this paper, we present our conceptual premises for a new paradigm, social portraiture, which combines participatory action research (Freire, 1982) and portraiture (Lawrence-Lightfoot & Hoffmann, 1997), and extends to include archival records and social art.…

Acting reflexively implies a "self-critical and self-conscious stance" (Glass, 2015, p. 555) of recognizing myself within a research process as an intentional participant-practitioner of generating knowledge. This article attempts to reveal visual evidence across a landscape of textual references and material implementations as a process…

This paper addresses three central themes that run through the contributions to this special issue. The first of these is what it argues to be an inescapable connection between research and what might in some sense be regarded as the pursuit of truth, or at least of beliefs that are more deserving of belief and our confidence than others. Even…

Phenomenology as a philosophy and a method of inquiry is not limited to an approach to knowing, it is rather an intellectual engagement in interpretations and meaning making that is used to understand the lived world of human beings at a conscious level. Historically, Husserl' (1913/1962) perspective of phenomenology is a science of understanding…

Imprecise constructs abound in science education research in part due to reliance on stipulative definitions that neglect fine distinctions between closely related constructs and overlook important meanings and hidden values embedded in language. Lack of conceptual clarity threatens construct validity, hampers theory development, and prevents…

Indigenist scholars have been attending to the research process in ways that highlight the move toward inquiry, the beginnings of the research journey. The energies that animate imagination and inquiry need to be respected and accounted for. If we recognize that place and the consciousness of landscape contain the primordial elements for the…

This paper presents an original methodology, called Alchemy as Inquiry. It is a methodology grounded in pure phenomenology and made accessible for reflective research into one's own experiences. It is an application of the pure phenomenology of Edmund Husserl. It mandates that the researcher personally experiences the phenomena under…

The author argues that educational research curriculum that repeats formalized, scientized, pre-existing, methods-driven social science research methodologies stifle the present and future of educational research. Because such methodologies are too often disconnected from their onto-epistemological commitments, she argues for a reconnection with…

This article uses rhetorical genre theory to discuss methods for writing studies research in light of increasing participation of Indigenous scholars and students in disciplines throughout the academy. Like genres, research methods are embedded in systems of interaction that create subject positions and social relations. Using rhetorical genre…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the idea that, in the last few decades, collaborative inquiry methods have evolved along a similar trajectory to dual lens research. Dual lens research, known in various contexts as both ways, two-eyed seeing Old Ways New Ways, and Koodjal Jinnung (looking both ways), is designed to generate new…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the use of critical policy analysis (CPA) in the fields of educational leadership and policy. In addition to exploring how CPA compares to traditional research approaches in educational leadership and policy, the authors consider the influence of long-established ways of knowing, why scholars choose…

This chapter is a call for consequential education research that has transformative potential: intellectually, educationally, and socially. It is about learning to see differently. It is an argument about seeing our work with youth and communities in ways that can help education researchers see ingenuity instead of ineptness and inability, to see…