The researcher reflecting on her own role during action research

This article focuses on the challenges and opportunities a researcher may encounter in practice, and presents four narratives that take the reader into situations which may arise when the researcher steps into the practice field. Episodes that challenge the researcher both cognitively and emotionally are depicted in the narratives. The authors describe their experiences, the prior understanding they have when they enter the situations and the reactions these lead to. Experiences that are close to practice are placed in a theoretical context so they can be analysed and understood through the lens of theory. This text may function as a thinking tool for researchers about to enter the same researcher role, and it is thus relevant for other researchers who wish to be part of close research partnerships. Hopefully, the article will contribute to discussions that may prepare researchers for unpredictable events.     

Factor structure of the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale (4th ed.) for gifted children

Administration of the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale (4th ed.) to 60 elementary school students resulted in means consistent with their “gifted” status. With two exceptions subtest “g” factor loadings from these children are similar to the g factor loadings from the standardization sample. An orthogonal rotation, varimax solution, resulted in four factors with eigenvalues greater than 1. Like the standardization sample, these gifted children yielded some subtest loadings which are consistent with the Stanford-Binet “model”; also like the standardization sample, not all the subtests loadings agreed with the model-based assignment. Results from a second factor analysis, a LISREL confirmatory analysis, also only partially supported the Binet model. Implications for interpretation are discussed.     

Prisoners of our own perspectives: recasting action research in modern/postmodern times

The case that contemporary social theories such as postmodernism can be used in the reflection stage of Action research is the central theme of this paper. Using the modern/ postmodern couplet, the paper attempts to challenge the Action researcher who is prepared to acknowledge the value of alternative views.     

Ethics at home: informed consent in your own backyard

Keying off of a “fully informed consent letter” that consists of the text of her original letter to participants interspersed with insights gained after‐the‐fact, the author explores ethical and institutional power issues that arose as she conducted a qualitative research study in her home institution – her own “backyard” – and offers a critical examination of the concept of “informed consent,” calling for a radical revision of the standard notions of research ethics that blur ethical sensibilities.