Discusses the theory and practice of rural socioeconomic surveys in developing nations. Highlights the close links between choice of research topic, field area and research methods, and the ethics of field research. Offers a personal commentary on some practical problems concerning field research. (MJP)

Describes a study of faculty and researchers' use patterns and perceptions of CD-ROM services at the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (Saudi Arabia) library. Highlights include CD-ROM search forms; a questionnaire survey; the need for user training; library planning; document delivery and interlibrary loan; and financial issues.…

The Family Spirit Project provides health and parenting education and in-home support to Navajo and Apache teen parents. The public-health careers of Native professionals allied with the project are described, including a public health administrator, a trainer of field workers, and a medical researcher specializing in communicable diseases that…

Discussion of how academic researchers communicate their results to external constituents focuses on an exploratory analysis of conversations between university researchers investigating hazardous waste remediation and outside consultants. Highlights include communicating and perceiving innovation attributes; technology transfer; diffusion of…

Ideally, every teacher should engage in teacher research. The paper describes how one university placed preservice teachers with teacher researchers who shared common curricular interests. The partnership provided teacher researchers with extra resources for conducting their inquiry and preservice teachers with mentors who engaged in…

A mentor teacher, student teacher, and university educator collaboratively examined factors that guided student teacher actions, analyzing data from conferences, interviews, and dialog journals. Results indicated benefits of supporting sustained mentor/student teacher conversations, engaging in action research for mentors and student teachers, and…

A researcher and four elementary teachers conducted collaborative action research to explore, implement, and document practitioner initiated change. The article highlights the political nature of action research linked with reform, noting that peers and principals can silence teachers' voices. Collaborative action research groups may provide…

Reports on a study to examine the hidden processes underlying the underrepresentation of women and minority ethnic groups in the academic profession. Identifies the importance of subject communities and their implicit values and assumptions. Illustrates the importance of judgments of academic merit at the very earliest stages of careers for racial…

Examines the challenges for academic libraries in providing library services for interdisciplinary research institutes. A technique for analyzing data gathered from interviews with scholars, citation analysis, and patterns of use of an article copy service is explained. Results are shown to be useful in planning library services. (Contains eight…

The National Science Foundation practice of using scientifically qualified program directors, some from university laboratories, to make grant-giving recommendations independent of external peer reviewers is compared with the practice of other agencies. A recent policy of allowing program directors to make some small grants without external peer…

Discusses administrative policies related to projects of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). Describes a typical budget for an IEA project. Includes a figure illustrating a typical project timetable. (CFR)

The construct validity of 14 measures used in college faculty personnel decisions was evaluated through a multitrait-multimethod matrix for data from 89 faculty members in 7 departments. The three-pronged model of teaching, research, and service was not validated. Exploratory factor analysis identified five or six behavior domains for evaluation.…

Discusses teaching responsibilities and related activities of school library media specialists; considers the role of teachers and media specialists as researchers; discusses testing, reasons for testing, and alternatives to testing, including portfolio evaluation; mentions the integration of mathematics into the curriculum, including library…

Dialog between the authors addresses multiculturalism from a critical perspective and reminds educational researchers that research is always about political representation. It is argued that researchers may have inadvertently created the populations they study because of the controlling cultural mode of their own research. (SLD)

The way in which changes in overall university funding can affect systems for paying staff, and in turn affect faculty career patterns and mobility, is examined. Data on pay, responsibilities, and qualifications of different faculty ranks in 8 countries (Sweden, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Japan, United States) are compared. (MSE)