What young people report about the personal characteristics needed for social science research after carrying out their own investigations in an after-school club

Several arguments have been put forward about the benefits of young people carrying out their own social science research in terms of empowering their voices and their participation. Much less attention has been paid to investigating the understandings young people develop about the research process itself. Seven twelve-year olds carried out self-directed social science research into a topic of their choice. Towards the end of their six months experience, we used a questionnaire and follow-up semi-structured interviews to investigate, from a sociocultural perspective, what the young people thought about being a researcher. Thematic analysis of the interviews identified three themes and eight subthemes suggesting that they were aware of: the need to demonstrate researcher/research integrity (be thorough, truthful, orderly, and have a good understanding of research process); the need for good interpersonal skills and standards, and good self-management skills (be resilient, agentic, committed and good at time management). We discuss how first-hand social science research experience might: be relevant to several areas of schooling; give young people experience of the personal characteristics important for success; help young people to realise that they can be social science researchers, and offer advanced and novel learning experiences outside the constraints of the school curriculum.     

The I3E model for embedding education for sustainability within higher education institutions

This paper presents an evidence-based model (the I3E model) for embedding education for sustainability (EfS) within a higher education institution. This model emerged from a doctoral research that examined organisational learning and change processes at the University of Southampton to build EfS into the university curriculum. The researcher aimed to learn from real practice through acting as a facilitator for curriculum development in EfS within an interdisciplinary group of academic staff members. A critical friend position was also acquired within a community of practice to implement a programme which attempted to embed sustainability within the student experience. The I3E model identifies four overarching components that can support universities in their aim to embed EfS within the undergraduate curriculum. These integrated components are: Inform the university community about sustainability; Engage the different university stakeholders in the change process towards sustainability; Empower individuals and groups to make change happen within their sphere of influence and action; and Embed sustainability within existing university structures.     

Technology Commercialization Effects on the Conduct of Research in Higher Education

The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of technology commercialization on researcher practice and productivity at U.S. universities. Using data drawn from licensing contract documents and databases of university-industry linkages and faculty research output, the study findings suggest that the common practice of licensing technologies exclusively to singular firms may have a dampening effect on faculty inventor propensity to conduct published research and to collaborate with others on research. Furthermore, faculty who are more actively engaged in patenting may be less likely to collaborate with outsiders on research while faculty at public universities may experience particularly strong norms to engage in commercialization vis-à-vis traditional routes to research dissemination. These circumstances appear to be hindering innovation via the traditional mechanisms (research publication and collaboration), questioning the success of policymaking to date for the purpose of speeding the movement of research from the lab bench to society.     

Learning from mistakes and moving forward in intercultural research with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples

The ongoing challenges in equitable research involving Indigenous peoples and their communities and ways to overcome these are discussed in this article. Central to this article is the narrative reflection of a non-Indigenous researcher following research on Indigenous spirituality, well-being and resilience in the Yaegl community of northern New South Wales, Australia, conducted between 2003 and 2010. Upon reflection several years after the studies, the researcher has identified several inadequacies in the ways in which the research was conceptualised, designed, conducted and supervised. In seeking to critically reflect on and learn from this experience, with the hope of contributing to better understanding and protocols in research with Indigenous peoples, as well as improved models of higher degree research (HDR) supervision in this space, the researcher has collaborated with an Indigenous academic to incorporate theory and Indigenous knowledge in highlighting considerations for better research training and practice.     

Reframing hostility

This paper comments on the Annette Hemmings's paper entitled, 'Youth culture of hostility: Discourses of money, respect and difference.' The paper briefly looks at Hemmings's findings, in particular those related to identity development. However, the major focus is on reframing methodological aspects of Hemmings's study. In particular, the paper examines challenges facing cultural outsiders doing research; the dynamic and multiple roles of the researcher in discourse analysis (i.e., participant, observer, and subject); and a theoretical rationale for including the researcher as subject in research, which is based on Foucault's notion of how discourse systems impact the construction of people's sense of social, political and cultural realities.     

University Science Teachers as Researchers: Blurring the Scholarship Boundaries

In this paper I examine the phenomenon of university teachers as researchers in their own classrooms. I use examples of three research teams in which we studied: (1) student response to a science and society course; (2) teacher and student perceptions of inquiry in a physics course; and (3) teaching and learning about the nature of science in an elementary science pedagogy course. In addition to describing each study, I compare their purposes, researcher roles, and actions taken. I use these comparisons to address the ideological clashes and dilemmas of ownership, action, and quality that arise in this kind of research. Finally, I comment upon the significance of university teachers as researchers for themselves, their institutions, and the research community.     

论教育研究中质的研究者

质的研究所具有的特点，决定了研究者在质的研究中占据着更特殊的角色和地位。在质的研究中，研究者本人是主要的研究工具，研究者是社会现象的忠实“再现者”。研究者在研究过程中会遇到哲学理念、思维方式和研究者角色等方面的矛盾与冲突，研究者学习和运用质的研究的体验与经历可以概括为“喜悦”、“执着”与“明了”等三种意境，研究者的研究素养在质的研究过程中起关键的作用，为提高研究者的研究素养，研究者要注重不断地反思自己的研究方式、锤炼自己的研究能力和提升自己的人格修养。     

Students’ reflective essays as insights into student centred-pedagogies within the undergraduate research methods curriculum

In higher education, despite the emphasis on student-centred pedagogical approaches, undergraduate research methods pedagogy remains surprisingly teacher-directed. Consequently, it may lead to research methods students assuming that becoming a researcher involves gathering information rather than it being a continuous developmental process. To combat this idea, a reflective student-centred pedagogical approach is evaluated for encouraging students’ development as researchers. In this study, undergraduate research methods students piloted a research method and produced a reflective essay of their research experience. Qualitative analysis of the students’ reflective essay demonstrated that students showed an awareness of both their research skills such as choosing an appropriate research instrument and their researcher identity such as the metacognition of their research competence. Pedagogical approaches that encourage ‘reflection on action’ in the research curriculum can, therefore, help students to articulate their researcher identity and build their research skills confidence and should be actively promoted.     

Facilitating critical reflection on practice through collaborative research

This paper emanates from a study that analysed the critical reflection of teacher researchers as they talked about their investigations of the home cultures and literacies of a small group of children from socioculturally diverse family contexts. The collaborative research enterprise was undertaken by university and teacher researchers. The important role that collaborative teacher research and social interaction played in the critical reflection and co-construction of professional understandings in the project is the focus of this paper. The teacher researchers’ theorising about the complexity of their work as a result of the collaborative enterprise is discussed. Through the voiced research and critical reflection of the teachers, it has become obvious that their life’s experiences and resources are powerful in their pedagogical theorising. Teachers comment on the way in which they are positioned by ‘the system’ as technicians and how they experience tension between their own professional and primary discourses and that of the system. It is suggested that teachers be given opportunity within their work sites to enter the conversations about curriculum, pedagogy and change in knowledgeable and meaningful ways that are grounded in collaborative reflection and research. This paper explores the critical reflection and the social construction of new understandings about the complexity of teachers’ work that occurred in a collaborative research project carried out by a university-based researcher and four school-based early years teacher researchers. It will show how the collaborative research process facilitated critical reflection on previously unquestioned or unconsidered issues about the teachers’ work. The paper has been written by the university researcher under the watchful eye of the teacher researchers who want to remain anonymous. Their pseudonyms have been used. When the terms of this project were negotiated among the group, it was agreed that the voices of the teachers would always be reported authentically and anonymously. It was also agreed that any theorising, integrated language analysis (Freeman, 1996) or reporting that might be carried out, would be done by the university researcher That is not to say that the teacher researchers have not spoken about their involvement in the project to colleagues in professional development forums and conferences. Nor is to say that the teachers were not privy to the analysis process. It is to say that written reports for publication are to be done by the university researcher.     

Balancing knowing and not-knowing: an exploration of doctoral candidates’ performance of researcher selves in the dissertation defence

This paper explores how 11 Canadian doctoral candidates performed as researchers in the final doctoral oral examination in handling questions that they identified as ‘difficult to answer’. Drawing from communities of practice theory, the study views the defence as an examination in which a novice researcher (the doctoral candidate) demonstrates knowing to a group of experienced researchers (the defence committee) in order to be approved of the membership of a scholarly community. The doctoral candidate’s researcher identity is considered as composed of three aspects: thinking about oneself as, performing as and being thought of as a researcher. It was found that many (41%) of the questions were difficult because of the questioners’ different perspectives on the dissertation; in answering them, the candidates balanced knowing and not-knowing by navigating across research areas/fields, methodological and epistemological borders. All the defences were successful, which indicate that these candidates were all thought of as competent researchers; yet, only those who thought about themselves as novice researchers felt satisfied with their performance.     

Academia and community action: actionaid,a community-based united kingdom parents' project

A fundamental challenge for research in the twenty-first century may necessitate consideration of the extent to which the goals and aspirations of research includes a renewed commitment to combining the knowledge and experience of the research community, the educational practitioner community and local communities. A cohesive triangular alliance is conceptualised, which takes account of the epistemological variation in these triple communities. The challenge is to forge collaborative relationships with links that provide support for new constructions of knowledge, rather than chains that may act as a restriction to innovatory and potentially constructive connections. This article investigates the potential for fresh links between the ‘community triangle’ of research, education and local communities with reference to ‘Actionaid’, a case study of a community-based parents' project, arising in conjunction with a doctoral study, combining the writer's academic and research knowledge, community based knowledge, education practitioner knowledge as well as her cultural knowledge and understanding as an African Caribbean woman. In describing this study the researcher will draw attention to questions surrounding ‘positionality’ and professionalism, in particular their impact on the development of knowledge formulations, which encompass methodological, professional and community credibility across the three communities     

Deliberative communication goes to college: the ‘Deliberation Forum’ project as a democratic agent of empowerment for communication students

A new field of research has developed over the last few decades, called ‘Deliberative Communication’. It focuses on the potential contribution of public deliberations to strengthening the foundations of democracy and the promotion of social–political goals and objectives. The current research focuses on a unique case study, the ‘Deliberation Forum’ project, conducted by the Department of Communication at the Yezreel Valley College, Israel. The researcher sought to learn about students' experience of participating in this online forum and the effects they attributed to it, through unstructured interviews she held with them. The students indicated that, for the most part, the experience of participating in the deliberation forum was very positive: it enhanced their self-image as thinking people; strengthened their sense of self-importance as students within the department; developed and reinforced habits of keeping abreast of current affairs as well as critical thinking; and finally, the experience developed and strengthened habits of active participation in pluralistic debates. The study findings indicate that participation in projects of this kind has a clear empowerment potential, while also improving participants' attitude toward public deliberation and decision-making processes.     

Action Research as a Postmodern Practice

This essay explores the author's experiences as a teacher, a reader, and a researcher in terms of some now-conventional knowledge about postmodernity. Using the term "postmodern research landscape," the author explains how the commonplaces of interactions among readers, teachers, and researchers co-emerge with ongoing senses of socio-spatial identity, and how these identities, in turn, shape the contexts in which persons experience personal and professional aspects of their lives. These ideas are used to map a more specific and particular understanding of postmodern action research practice.     

‘Us,the body’: Two women’s uses of health texts in Hawai’i

The researcher analysed two women’s uses of popular culture texts on the island of Hawai’i. They read these texts in order to learn about, and manage, their health problems. These vernacular texts were different from the institutional texts that were prescribed to them by their doctors, as well as the commercial ones that were in the literacy programme they attended. Their uses of these self‐help texts reflected the staunchly religious community where they lived, as well as the post‐welfare society, with pressures to solve their own problems. The researcher used ethnographic methods to learn about these issues. These popular materials provided the women with relaxation and meaning, which fit with their communities of practice. The study points to the value of knowing about learners’ social practices for policymaking and the importance of incorporating these types of texts into programmes.     

Moving Beyond Collaboration: Re-describing research relationships with classroom teachers

Drawing on my own difficult experience as a well-intentioned educational researcher working in collaboration with an elementary school teacher, this article highlights some of the dilemmas and complexities of collaboration with classroom teachers. Specifically, I raise questions about a previously underexplored yet surprisingly powerful factor in collaborative educational research: the language we use to talk about research relationships. I offer an interpretation of a recent 'collaborative' study that positions our difficulties as a conceptual-language problem rooted in our severely limited vocabulary for discussing and understanding research relationships. I conclude the article with a call for the development of a richer, fuller range of terms to describe research currently labeled 'collaborative'.     

Dismay and Disappointment: Parental Involvement of Latino Immigrant Parents

Parental involvement in schools has become more popular over the past decade due to Goals 2000 and research suggesting that student academic success increases when parents are included in the education of their children. Although researchers have examined the issue of parents and schools, limited research on parental involvement has been conducted within immigrant communities. Latino immigrant parents within a predominantly Latino community in California were interviewed. Although the community has strong Latino roots, these immigrant parents believed the schools do not listen or care to listen to their needs as parents. The parents in this study desired to be a part of their children's education, but forces within their children's school prevented them from doing so. The parents wished that teachers would be available to speak about grades, be able to find interpreters during open house and at other times throughout the school day, and communicate with the parents when their child is in need of assistance. Due to the apparent walls that had been established within the school's structure, the parents in this study felt abandoned and helpless while trying to gain information regarding their children's education. Parents in this study were so passionate about their stories that they pleaded with the researcher to let their story be heard in the researchers' teacher education courses so future teachers would know how immigrant parents felt.     

Levels of knowing in ethnographic inquiry

Many texts that offer guidance to beginning researchers suggest that the competent ethnographer, while attempting to portray participants’ ways faithfully and accurately, should also demystify the research process through open revelation, self‐monitoring, and self‐evaluation. This paper illustrates the complexities of ethnographic inquiry by examining critically a study of literacy‐related activities of nursery school children and their teachers. Four stages of researcher development are proposed and described as a heuristic device in order to trace and expand issues germane to ethnographic research. The paper attends to some current concerns about contemporary discourse on research methodology, particularly how to make sense of the content‐specific issues that surface as a result of research, and also the experience itself of doing the research.     

Insight into Industry: one school's approach

Leadership provided by the headteacher is widely acknowledged to be a crucial variable in determining the effectiveness of schools. However, the majority of leadership studies consist of either surveys or interviews which the researcher has conducted with head teachers or case studies written by the head teachers which draw heavily upon their own experience, and as such are essentially 'autobiographical' in the perspective they provide on leadership in schools (Ribbins &; Sherratt, 1992). The objectives of this article are to: set out a new model of effective school leadership based on recently completed empirical research; demonstrate how the multi-perspective methodology adopted contributed to a critique of existing models of leadership and the development of a new grounded model and discuss the analytical issues raised by the multi-perspective methodology which involved all the stakeholders in a school community.