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Educational Research (educational + research)
Selected AbstractsCITIZENSHIP EDUCATION, POLICY, AND THE EDUCATIONALIZATION OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCHEDUCATIONAL THEORY, Issue 4 2008Naomi Hodgson Hodgson begins by analyzing educational researchers' response to the recent introduction of citizenship education in England, focusing specifically on a review of research, policy, and practice in this area commissioned by the British Educational Research Association (BERA). She argues that the BERA review exemplifies the field of education policy sociology in that it is conducted according to the concepts of its parent discipline of sociology but lacks critical theoretical engagement with them. Instead, such work operationalizes sociological concepts in service of educational policy solutions. Hodgson identifies three dominant discourses of citizenship education within the BERA review, the academic discourse of education policy sociology, contemporary political discourse, and the discourse of inclusive education , and draws attention to the relation of citizenship education to policy initiatives, and thus to educationalization. She then discusses Foucault's concept of normalization in terms of the demand on the contemporary subject to orient the self in a certain relation toward learning informed by the need for competitiveness in the European and global context. Ultimately, Hodgson concludes that the language and rhetoric of education policy sociology implicate such research in the process of educationalization itself. [source] HAMMERS AND SAWS FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCHEDUCATIONAL THEORY, Issue 3 2005Margaret Eisenhart This article examines different conceptions of causation and their implications for understanding educational phenomena and conducting educational research. Specifically, I discuss four research designs for pursuing questions about causation in education. Two of these research designs take a variance approach to causation (that is, they attempt to show correlations between earlier events and subsequent ones), while the other two take a process approach (that is, they attempt to show a demonstrable sequence of events by which one variable flows into or leads to another). The point of the discussion is to illustrate, first, their respective strengths and, second, their necessary interdependence. Ultimately, I argue that just as both hammers and saws are needed to build a good house, both variance and process approaches are needed to build a good understanding of causation in education. [source] Sound, Presence, and Power: "Student Voice" in Educational Research and ReformCURRICULUM INQUIRY, Issue 4 2006ALISON COOK-SATHER ABSTRACT Every way of thinking is both premised on and generative of a way of naming that reflects particular underlying convictions. Over the last 15 years, a way of thinking has reemerged that strives to reposition students in educational research and reform. Best documented in Australia, Canada, England, and the United States, this way of thinking is premised on the following convictions: that young people have unique perspectives on learning, teaching, and schooling; that their insights warrant not only the attention but also the responses of adults; and that they should be afforded opportunities to actively shape their education. Although these convictions mean different things to different people and take different forms in practice, a single term has emerged to capture a range of activities that strive to reposition students in educational research and reform: "student voice." In this discussion the author explores the emergence of the term "student voice," identifies underlying premises signaled by two particular words associated with the term, "rights" and "respect," and explores the many meanings of a word that surfaces repeatedly across discussions of student voice efforts but refers to a wide range of practices: "listening." The author offers this discussion not as an exhaustive or definitive analysis but rather with the goal of looking across discussions of work that advocates, enacts, and critically analyzes the term "student voice." [source] Educational Research: Time to Reach the Bar, Not Lower ItACADEMIC EMERGENCY MEDICINE, Issue 3 2005Roger J. Lewis MD No abstract is available for this article. [source] Complexity and Educational Research: A critical reflectionEDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY AND THEORY, Issue 1 2008Lesley Kuhn Abstract Judgements concerning proper or appropriate educational endeavour, methods of investigation and philosophising about education necessarily implicate perspectives, values, assumptions and beliefs. In recent years ideas from the complexity sciences have been utilised in many domains including psychology, economics, architecture, social science and education. This paper addresses questions concerning the appropriateness of utilising complexity science in educational research as well as issues relating to the ways in which complexity might be engaged. I suggest that, just like all human endeavour, approaches to research emerge out of discursive communities and can be understood as self-organising, dynamic and emergent over time. In this formulation, complexity represents one such newly emergent approach. I argue that it is important that researchers partake in critical and reflective discourse about the nature of education and conceptual frameworks, as well as about impacts and legacies of utilising complexity, so as to participate in and influence the ongoing emergence of educational endeavour. I conclude by suggesting a series of caveats for researchers considering using complexity in educational research. [source] Foucault, Educational Research and the Issue of AutonomyEDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY AND THEORY, Issue 3 2005Mark Olssen Abstract This article seeks to demonstrate a particular application of Foucault's philosophical approach to a particular issue in education: that of personal autonomy. The paper surveys and extends the approach taken by James Marshall in his book Michel Foucault: Personal autonomy and education. After surveying Marshall's writing on the issue I extend Marshall's approach, critically analysing the work of Rob Reich and Meira Levinson, two contemporary philosophers who advocate models of personal autonomy as the basis for a liberal education. [source] Good work , how is it recognised by the nurse?JOURNAL OF CLINICAL NURSING, Issue 12 2008Bjørg Christiansen Dr. Polit. Aim., The aim of this paper is to shed light on how nurses describe situations that reflect achievement and provide confirmation that they have done good work. Background., Nurses' recognition of good work does not seem to have been the object of direct investigation, but is indirectly reflected in studies focusing on nurses' perceptions on work environments and the multifaceted nature of nursing. However, acknowledging high-quality performance in professional nurses can facilitate nurses in maintaining and strengthening the goals and values of the profession. This in turn can help nurses shoulder the multifaceted responsibilities they have to patients and next of kin. Design., This paper is part of the Professional Learning in a Changing Society project, Institute of Educational Research, University of Oslo, funded by the Research Council of Norway. The project involves four professional groups. This paper, however, focuses on a group of 10 nurses, nine of whom work in hospitals and one in an outpatient clinic. A qualitative approach was chosen to gain insight into how nurses, as well as the other professional groups in the project, engage in processes of knowledge production and quality assurance work. Methods., Data presented in this paper derive from semi-structured in-depth interviews conducted during spring 2005 and focuses on the recognition of good work. Results., The following themes were identified as essential in confirming that one did good work: securing fundamental needs of patients and next of kin; managing the flow of responsibilities; positive feedback. Conclusions., Good work seems to be related to specific situations and a sense of achievement by the respondents. Relevance to clinical practice., Recognition of good work is not only rewarding and enjoyable; it may also serve as a source of consciousness raising for professional and ethical guidelines in the work place. [source] Educational Research and the Practical Judgement of Policy MakersJOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION, Issue 2008DAVID BRIDGES [source] Philosophy, Methodology and Educational Research: IntroductionJOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION, Issue 2 2006David Bridges [source] The Myth of ,Scientific Method' in Contemporary Educational ResearchJOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION, Issue 2 2006DARRELL PATRICK ROWBOTTOM Whether educational research should employ the ,scientific method' has been a recurring issue in its history. Hence, textbooks on research methods continue to perpetuate the idea that research students ought to choose between competing camps: ,positivist' or ,interpretivist'. In reference to one of the most widely referred to educational research methods textbooks on the market,namely Research Methods in Education by Cohen, Manion, and Morrison,this paper demonstrates (1) the misconception of science in operation and (2) the perversely false dichotomy that has become enshrined in educational research. It then advocates a new approach, and suggests that the fixation with ,science' versus ,non-science' is counterproductive, when what is actually required for good inquiry is a critical approach to knowledge claims. [source] The Contested Nature of Empirical Educational Research (and Why Philosophy of Education Offers Little Help)JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION, Issue 4 2005D. C. PHILLIPS This paper suggests that empirical educational research has not, on the whole, been treated well by philosophers of education. A variety of criticisms have been offered, ranging from triviality, conceptual confusion and the impossibility of empirically studying normative processes. Furthermore, many of those who criticise, or dismiss, empirical research do so without subjecting any specific examples to careful scholarly scrutiny. It is suggested that both philosophy of education, and the empirical research enterprise, stand to profit if philosophers pay more attention to real cases,and this attention is especially important at present, when research funding is being based on spurious scientistic criteria such as the use of ,gold standard' randomised experimental research designs. [source] Language and Educational ResearchJOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION, Issue 2 2001Ian Frowe This paper takes as its starting point the two paradigms for educational research discussed by Richard Pring in an earlier edition of this journal. The focus is on the role of language and how it might function in relation to research. Drawing on the work of Charles Taylor it is argued that language can legitimately be conceived as constitutive of certain aspects of reality. Taylor's position, it is suggested, indicates a possible relationship between language and reality which transcends both representationalism and inferentialism. Some indications of the implications of this perspective for education are briefly considered. [source] The ,False Dualism' of Educational ResearchJOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION, Issue 2 2000Richard Pring Educational research is being subject to damaging criticism from both outside and within the research community. The external critics are impatient of research which does not give evidence-based answers to the questions they ask. The internal critics condemn the very research which seeks to provide those answers. These differences are reflected in the rigid distinction between quantitative and qualitative research. This paper questions the philosophical positions on which such a distinction relies. [source] How Design Experiments Can Inform Teaching and Learning: Teacher-Researchers as Collaborators in Educational ResearchLEARNING DISABILITIES RESEARCH & PRACTICE, Issue 4 2005Asha K. Jitendra In this commentary, I summarize my own research with colleagues to affirm Dr. Gersten's call for considering design experiments prior to conducting intervention research. I describe how design experiments not only can inform teaching and the learning of innovative approaches, but also hold the promise of effectively bridging the research-to-practice gap to produce meaningful change in practice when innovative practices are fine-tuned and validated by partnerships with teacher-researchers. [source] How Many Brains Does It Take to Build a New Light: Knowledge Management Challenges of a Transdisciplinary ProjectMIND, BRAIN, AND EDUCATION, Issue 1 2009Bruno Della Chiesa ABSTRACT, The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD) Center for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI) carried out the Learning Sciences and Brain Research project (1999,2007) to investigate how neuroscience research can inform education policy and practice. This transdisciplinary project brought many challenges. Within the political community, participation in the project varied, with some countries resisting approval of the project altogether, in the beginning. In the neuroscientific community, participants struggled to represent their knowledge in a way that would be meaningful and relevant to educators. Within the educational community, response to the project varied, with many educational researchers resisting it for fear that neuroscience research might make their work obsolete. Achieving dialogue among these communities was even more challenging. One clear obstacle was that participants had difficulty recognizing tacit knowledge in their own field and making this knowledge explicit for partners in other fields. This article analyzes these challenges through a knowledge management framework. [source] Theory and Educational Research: Toward Critical Social Explanation , By Jean AnyonANTHROPOLOGY & EDUCATION QUARTERLY, Issue 2 2009Aurora Chang-Ross No abstract is available for this article. [source] CONTEXTUALIZING LEARNING OBJECTS USING ONTOLOGIESCOMPUTATIONAL INTELLIGENCE, Issue 3 2007Phaedra Mohammed Educational research over the past three years has intensified such that the context of learning resources needs to be properly modeled. Many researchers have described and even mandated the use of ontologies in the research being conducted, yet the process of actually connecting one or more ontologies to a learning object has not been extensively discussed. This paper describes a practical model for associating multiple ontologies with learning objects while making full use of the IEEE LOM specification. The model categorizes these ontologies according to five major categories of context based on the most popular fields of study actively being pursued by the educational research community: Thematic context, Pedagogical context, Learner context, Organizational context, and Historical/Statistical context. [source] Using NANDA, NIC, and NOC (NNN) Language for Clinical Reasoning With the Outcome-Present State-Test (OPT) ModelINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NURSING TERMINOLOGIES AND CLASSIFICATION, Issue 3 2006CRRN-A, Donald D. Kautz RN PURPOSE.,To analyze the degree to which standardized nursing language was used by baccalaureate nursing students completing Outcome-Present State-Test (OPT) model worksheets in a clinical practicum. METHODS.,A scoring instrument was developed and 100 worksheets were retrospectively analyzed. FINDINGS.,NANDA nursing diagnoses were correctly stated in 92% of the OPT models. Nursing Outcomes Classification (NOC) outcomes were explicitly stated in 22%, and implied in 72%. Interventions matched appropriate Nursing Interventions Classification (NIC) activities in 61%. CONCLUSIONS.,NANDA, NIC, and NOC (NNN) language was used inconsistently by students in this sample. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE.,If NNN language is to advance nursing knowledge, its promotion, representation in curriculum development, and active use is necessary. Educational research is needed on the facilitators and barriers to NNN language use. [source] The ,False Dualism' of Educational ResearchJOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION, Issue 2 2000Richard Pring Educational research is being subject to damaging criticism from both outside and within the research community. The external critics are impatient of research which does not give evidence-based answers to the questions they ask. The internal critics condemn the very research which seeks to provide those answers. These differences are reflected in the rigid distinction between quantitative and qualitative research. This paper questions the philosophical positions on which such a distinction relies. [source] Sound, Presence, and Power: "Student Voice" in Educational Research and ReformCURRICULUM INQUIRY, Issue 4 2006ALISON COOK-SATHER ABSTRACT Every way of thinking is both premised on and generative of a way of naming that reflects particular underlying convictions. Over the last 15 years, a way of thinking has reemerged that strives to reposition students in educational research and reform. Best documented in Australia, Canada, England, and the United States, this way of thinking is premised on the following convictions: that young people have unique perspectives on learning, teaching, and schooling; that their insights warrant not only the attention but also the responses of adults; and that they should be afforded opportunities to actively shape their education. Although these convictions mean different things to different people and take different forms in practice, a single term has emerged to capture a range of activities that strive to reposition students in educational research and reform: "student voice." In this discussion the author explores the emergence of the term "student voice," identifies underlying premises signaled by two particular words associated with the term, "rights" and "respect," and explores the many meanings of a word that surfaces repeatedly across discussions of student voice efforts but refers to a wide range of practices: "listening." The author offers this discussion not as an exhaustive or definitive analysis but rather with the goal of looking across discussions of work that advocates, enacts, and critically analyzes the term "student voice." [source] Creating Research Questions from Strategies and Perspectives of Contemporary ArtCURRICULUM INQUIRY, Issue 1 2001G. Thomas Fox This essay considers how strategies and perspectives from contemporary art can suggest new questions for educational research. Although arts-based research has become more prominent lately, the concern of this paper is that the arts have become used primarily as decorative features to educational research (to further illuminate, depict, and explain the ambiguities and complexities of educational practices, see Donmoyer 1997), rather than deeply moving or disorientating perspectives on education. Another stimulant for looking into contemporary art is the concern that education must focus more on the edges of what is understood, rather than on the centers (see, for example, Fox 1995). The essay uses examples to demonstrate how a number of themes from contemporary art can be interpreted to redirect our curiosity about educational practices, policies, and theories. The paper concludes that further consideration of contemporary art can move researchers to ask more varied questions, especially about the wisdom of our progressive, critical, or humanistic views of students and learning that we have built over this century. [source] Rereading the Dominant Narrative of MentoringCURRICULUM INQUIRY, Issue 4 2000Alexandra Semeniuk Mentoring is currently being promoted as an effective means of easing new teachers' transition from preservice programs to the profession.. At the same time it is seen as a way of providing teacher development for those teachers with more experience. Furthermore researchers promote mentoring as a force for change to diminish isolation and promote teacher collaboration. In this article I present an overview,the dominant narrative,of some recent research on formalized mentoring programs in education. Bringing this material together reveals that researchers are virtually unanimous in their enthusiasm for these initiatives. A dialogue which took place between me and a colleague/friend about what we construed as our mentoring relationshippotentially serves as a counternarrative to this prevalent story. Through an analysis of the educational research and the personal narrative, I suggest that the widely accepted view of mentoring may need to be reread, particularly in relation to language: mentoring's meaning is now imprecise because it is used as an umbrella term for many kinds of affiliations in teaching. Inrereading our narrative I argue that my colleague/friend and I did not act as each other's mentor. Rather, our professional association became entwined with the friendship we developed over time. I maintain that by doing a similar rereading of the research on mentoring in education we might find richer and more precise language to describe how we as teachers can assist one another in becoming sophisticated professionals. [source] Psycho-educational interventions for children and young people with Type 1 diabetesDIABETIC MEDICINE, Issue 9 2006H. R. Murphy Abstract Background, A systematic review of the literature in 2000 revealed numerous methodological shortcomings in education research, but in recent years progress has been made in the quantity and quality of psycho-educational intervention studies. Summary of contents, This review focuses on diabetes education programmes developed for children, young people and their families in the past 5 years. A comprehensive review of the literature identified 27 articles describing the evaluation of 24 psycho-educational interventions. Data summary tables compare the key features of these, and comparisons are made between individual, group and family-based interventions. Effect sizes are calculated for nine of the randomized studies. Three research questions are posed: firstly has the recent literature addressed the problems highlighted in the previous review; secondly is there sufficient evidence to recommend adaptation of a particular programme; and, finally, what do we still need to do? Conclusions, Progress in the quality and quantity of educational research has not resulted in improved effectiveness of interventions. There is still insufficient evidence to recommend adaptation of a particular educational programme and no programme that has been proven effective in randomized studies for those with poor glycaemic control. To develop a range of effective educational interventions, further research involving larger sample sizes with multicentre collaboration is required. [source] Child-Rearing: On government intervention and the discourse of expertsEDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY AND THEORY, Issue 6 2008Paul Smeyers Abstract For Kant, education was understood as the ,means' to become human,and that is to say, rational. For Rousseau by contrast, and the many child-centred educators that followed him, the adult world, far from representing reason, is essentially corrupt and given over to the superficialities of worldly vanity. On this view, the child, as a product of nature, is essentially good and will learn all she needs to know from experience. Both positions have their own problems, but beyond this ,internal debate', the change in the content of education (i.e. child-rearing and schooling) is now furthermore due to a radical pluralism that has swept the world. Moreover, there may be differences in value between individual parents and between values held within the family and those held in society at large. Among other reasons this has put more generally children's (and parents') ,rights' on the agenda, which differs from thinking of education in terms of a ,practice'. The paper develops this latter concept and the criticisms to which it has been subject and argues that there is no necessary incompatibility between initiation into an existing practice and transforming that practice in some way, if it is emphasized how practices are learned and enacted. It then turns to the tendency in education and child-rearing, as in other spheres of human interaction, for more laws and codes of conduct and to call upon experts for all kind of matters. It argues that performativity rules on the level of the practitioner, of the experts, and even on the level of educational research. It argues that many governments have adopted in matters of schooling the language of output and school effectiveness and that something similar is now bound to happen in the sphere of child-rearing (with talk of parenting skills and courses). This is made credible due to a particular model of educational research, i.e. an empiricist quasi-causal model of explaining human behaviour. The paper then discusses the problems with this stance and argues that we should part company from the entrepreneurial manipulative educator to open up a sphere of responsiveness for the child and that for these reasons, the concept of the ,practice of child-rearing' should be revisited. Insisting on the complexities that have to be taken into account and thus surpassing a discourse of effectiveness and output as well as of codes of conduct and rulings of courts of law, may help us to focus on what is really at stake: to lead a meaningful life, to be initiated into what is ,real for us' and what we value. It concludes that thus restoring a place for child-rearing as a practice will do justice to the responsiveness to which each child is entitled. [source] Torsions Within the Same Anxiety?EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY AND THEORY, Issue 4 2008Entification, apophasis, history Abstract In Anglophone educational research in the United States, the name Foucault has been more pointedly celebrated in some subfields such as curriculum studies relative to its more noticeable censorship in subfields such as history of education. This paper illustrates how such differential epistemological politics might be accounted for through reapproaching the challenges to historiography that Histoire de la Folie (Madness and Civilization) raised. Through the formalist lens of performative apophasis, and with attention to the dependencies of discourse that characterize narrative prosthesis, this paper re-engages the least referenced of Foucault's major histories in the educational field to bring into noticeability other ,conditions of possibility',ones that explicate how an apophatic turn might account for divergent reactions to less familiar philosophies of history and/or to ,alternative' approaches to documents through which history is now being narrated and critiqued in education and beyond. [source] Complexity Theory and the Philosophy of EducationEDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY AND THEORY, Issue 1 2008Mark Mason Abstract Following a brief introduction to complexity theory, this paper considers how various themes in the field relate to the philosophical study of education. Issues and questions introduced include the challenge of complexity theory for the philosophy of education,and, conversely, some critical challenges for complexity theory from educational philosophy; complexity theory and educational continuity and change; the importance that complexity theory places on interpretive perspectives that are transphenomenal, transdisciplinary and transdiscursive; the risks of simplifying complexity to a point that excludes its ambiguities and includes only its dominant usages; the degree of coherence between Dewey's philosophical orientation and that of complexity theory; how Foucault might be read as a complexity theorist; how educational research informed by complexity theory might ask different questions with different analytical perspectives,connectionist, holistic, non-linear, rather than input,output ,black-box' causal modelling, for example; and how curriculum, teaching, the epistemology of schooling, and the ,education of consciousness',understood s an emergent phenomenon,might be different when viewed from the perspective of complexity theory. [source] Educational Philosophy and the Challenge of Complexity TheoryEDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY AND THEORY, Issue 1 2008Keith Morrison Abstract Complexity theory challenges educational philosophy to reconsider accepted paradigms of teaching, learning and educational research. However, though attractive, not least because of its critique of positivism, its affinity to Dewey and Habermas, and its arguments for openness, diversity, relationships, agency and creativity, the theory is not without its difficulties. These are seen to lie in terms of complexity theory's nature, status, methodology, utility and contribution to the philosophy of education, being a descriptive theory that is easily misunderstood as a prescriptive theory, silent on key issues of values and ethics that educational philosophy should embrace, of questionable internal consistency, and of limited ,added value' in educational philosophy. The paper sets out key tenets of complexity theory and argues that, though it is useful for educational philosophy, it requires new conceptual tools and mind-sets to comprehend fully its significance. [source] Complexity and Educational Research: A critical reflectionEDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY AND THEORY, Issue 1 2008Lesley Kuhn Abstract Judgements concerning proper or appropriate educational endeavour, methods of investigation and philosophising about education necessarily implicate perspectives, values, assumptions and beliefs. In recent years ideas from the complexity sciences have been utilised in many domains including psychology, economics, architecture, social science and education. This paper addresses questions concerning the appropriateness of utilising complexity science in educational research as well as issues relating to the ways in which complexity might be engaged. I suggest that, just like all human endeavour, approaches to research emerge out of discursive communities and can be understood as self-organising, dynamic and emergent over time. In this formulation, complexity represents one such newly emergent approach. I argue that it is important that researchers partake in critical and reflective discourse about the nature of education and conceptual frameworks, as well as about impacts and legacies of utilising complexity, so as to participate in and influence the ongoing emergence of educational endeavour. I conclude by suggesting a series of caveats for researchers considering using complexity in educational research. [source] Applied Derrida: (Mis)Reading the work of mourning in educational researchEDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY AND THEORY, Issue 3 2003Patti Lather First page of article [source] HAMMERS AND SAWS FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCHEDUCATIONAL THEORY, Issue 3 2005Margaret Eisenhart This article examines different conceptions of causation and their implications for understanding educational phenomena and conducting educational research. Specifically, I discuss four research designs for pursuing questions about causation in education. Two of these research designs take a variance approach to causation (that is, they attempt to show correlations between earlier events and subsequent ones), while the other two take a process approach (that is, they attempt to show a demonstrable sequence of events by which one variable flows into or leads to another). The point of the discussion is to illustrate, first, their respective strengths and, second, their necessary interdependence. Ultimately, I argue that just as both hammers and saws are needed to build a good house, both variance and process approaches are needed to build a good understanding of causation in education. [source] |