Meaningful integration within mixed methods studies: Identifying why,what, when,and how

This special issue of Contemporary Educational Psychology brings together an important collection of examples of how researchers have applied mixed methods research to study questions of interest in the field of educational psychology. Collectively, the articles illustrate the unique insights that can be gained when researchers intentionally integrate quantitative and qualitative methods within mixed methods studies. Further, the special issue highlights specific mixed methods strategies that the authors used to achieve and communicate the integration aspects within their studies. The authors’ application of these strategies provides useful models for scholars planning mixed methods studies and scholars reviewing reports of mixed methods studies within educational psychology and beyond.     

Race-reimaging educational psychology research: Investigating constructs through the lens of race and culture

Despite increasing racial and cultural diversity in the United States and many other industrialized countries, less than 2% of research published in top-tier educational psychology journals authentically examines the experiences of racial and cultural minorities. Through this special issue, we not only aim to increase representation of these populations in our research, but we also strive to promote greater integrity in how racial and cultural constructs are managed in the theories, methods, analyses, and interpretations of educational psychology research. In this introduction article, we define and discuss race-reimaging in educational psychology. Further, we briefly review the historical and contemporary issues in conventional psychological research that necessitate race-reimaging and underscore its appeal. Subsequently, we introduce each article in the special issue and speak to how its respective race-reimaging qualities inform as well as extend traditional educational psychology constructs. Finally, we point to special guest commentary by Paul Schutz and conclude with implications for race-reimaged research broadly.     

School Choice Policies Shaping Neighborhoods,School Locations,and Destinies

ABSTRACT

In this article, we introduce a special collection of research articles that consider the processes and consequences of school choice across different social and spatial contexts in order to better understand the relationship between school choice and stratification in educational opportunity. This special issue presents a wide range of studies that examine geographical configurations, locations, scales, and relationships, all of which shape and are shaped by school choice. We summarize the diverse theoretical perspectives and themes. We also highlight the articles’ key results and new contributions related to issues such as inter-district school choice, open enrollment school choice programs, diversification of curricular-related activities among EMO-operated schools, and geographic variation in achievement of the charter school sector     

Education for pupils with profound disabilities: Issues of policy,curriculum, teaching methods,and evaluation

ABSTRACT

This paper discusses some issues in the education of pupils who have profound disabilities. Following an examination of policy and curriculum issues, we review recent research on teaching methods. In particular, we look critically at the concepts and methods of behavioural psychology and its influence in this field of education. We then examine the issue of evaluation of educational outcomes using illustrations from current research at a special school for adolescents with profound disabilities. Finally, we suggest some directions for future research which place the education of persons who have profound disabilities clearly within the mainstream of educational thinking and research endeavour.     

The Challenges of Defining and Measuring Student Engagement in Science

Engagement is one of the hottest research topics in the field of educational psychology. Research shows that multifarious benefits occur when students are engaged in their own learning, including increased motivation and achievement. However, there is little agreement on a concrete definition and effective measurement of engagement. This special issue serves to discuss and work toward addressing conceptual and instrumentation issues related to engagement, with particular interest in engagement in the domain of science learning. We start by describing the dimensional perspective of engagement (behavioral, cognitive, emotional, agentic) and suggest a complementary approach that places engagement instrumentation on a continuum. Specifically, we recommend that instrumentation be considered on a “grain-size” continuum that ranges from a person-centered to a context-centered orientation to clarify measurement issues. We then provide a synopsis of the articles included in this special issue and conclude with suggestions for future research.     

SPECIAL ISSUE INTRODUCTION: Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives on Consultation in Gifted Education: An Overview

This article provides an overview of the purposes of this special issue, which focuses on consultation services for the gifted and talented. The special issue provides a forum within the professional literature to discuss the ways in which various professionals in the fields of education and psychology can provide consultation services of benefit to the gifted. The articles address the need to increase awareness about the gifted and to provide services that enhance the knowledge base of educational and psychological consultants.     

Building the field’s knowledge of teaching and learning: Centering the socio-cultural contexts of observation systems to ensure valid score interpretation

The articles in a special issue of this journal, Merits and Limitations of Researching Teaching Quality More Synergistically, grapple with the assertion that the field does not share a common language or structural decomposition of teaching and that the current range of frameworks and observation systems used by researchers jeopardizes the accumulation of knowledge in the field. We analyze these arguments from a socio-cultural perspective, theorizing that teaching and the improvement of teaching occur in socially situated contexts that give meaning to all research frameworks and measurement tools. Rather than asking whether a common framework of teaching might be useful, we ask when such a framework might be useful, when can such efforts be limiting, and why? Building on contemporary validity theory, we bring the role of context back into the current conversation. We suggest that while there are important affordances of a unified framework of teaching quality, such a framework will be unable to fully address some of the issues identified in this special issue. For practical, theoretical, empirical, and socio-cultural reasons, researchers will require multiple frameworks and associated observation systems to support the study and improvement of teaching across contexts.     

Serious challenges require serious scholarship: Integrating implementation science into the scholarly discourse

The articles in this special issue illustrate the challenges of implementing interventions in school contexts, as well as the lessons that can be learned from such work. Being responsive to the challenges and affordances of educational contexts requires studying not just the treatment, but also what happens before, during, and after implementation. Scholarship on implementation science and curricular design can be productively integrated into intervention development and research, as the authors in this special issue have shown. Gathering data regarding the entirety of the intervention implementation can result in powerful lessons for the field, but researchers, and journal editors, must apply the same standards of rigor for reporting implementation fidelity as they do for reporting psychometrics or statistical analyses. As this special issue shows, when the field of educational psychology takes seriously the scholarship of implementation, the result is positive implications for theory, practice, and the preparation of future scholars.     

Living in an era of comparisons: comparative research on policy,curriculum and teaching

ABSTRACT

The articles in this special issue include different perspectives on comparative policy studies with an aim to understand transnational education policies in relation to the logic of national educational systems and to grasp the ongoing reframing of teacher identity and teaching as a result of the policy activities of ‘new’ and coordinated international actors. This special issue aims to contribute to a continued qualified investigation in curriculum issues at the various levels within the public education system, as well as in the international policy movements, affecting public education differently in different nations. A ‘comparative curriculum research’ inspired by theories and methods from comparative education might be helpful in this endeavour.     

Language Ideology,Christianity, and Identity: Critical Empirical Examinations of Christian Institutions as Alternative Spaces

ABSTRACT

The teaching and learning of languages has been mainly investigated within educational institutions, especially by applied linguists. However, religious spaces such as churches and church related programs have historically and contemporarily served as important alternative spaces for such teaching and learning to take place. At the same time, such institutions and the way that language teaching and learning unfold in these spaces necessitates both a critical and empirical examination which makes salient the role and consequences of power. The focus of this special issue is to provide examples of studies which seek to fill this gap. This introduction serves as a way to set up this special issue and the articles within it by making salient the themes of language socialization, language ideology, identity, Christianity, ethnography and systems of power, as well as showing how the four studies in this special issue speak to the aforementioned gap and these themes.     

A Commentary on Design Research

The call for design research, design-based research, or design experiments arose from the recognition of the complexity of classroom interventions and dissatisfaction with existing methodologies for exploring the outcomes from such interventions. The goal of the proposed design research was to describe how interventions worked and was less about documenting that they worked. The concerns voiced are not new, and the emergence of proposals for alternatives was a natural outgrowth of trends in the field of educational psychology. Advances are only beginning to be made in the articulation of a design research methodology, and some of the criticism and recommendations for progress are described. The articles in this issue provide examples of design research and point to some issues that still require attention. Among these are the need to clarify the nature of design research and the role of context in such research.     

Introduction to the special issue: an international partnership in vocational psychology and career guidance practice

This thematic issue of the International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance includes a selection of papers presented at the IAEVG-SVP-NCDA Symposium, entitled “Vocational Psychology and Career Guidance Practice: An International Partnership”. The articles in this special issue deal with topics that highlight the interconnection between vocational psychology and career guidance. The authors, because of their different geographical and cultural backgrounds, address these points from their own perspectives. The outcome of the general discussion that centred on these topics at the International Symposium is jointly published in a special issue of the Career Development Quarterly, Vol. 57, No. 4.     

Introducing positive psychology: Finding a place within school psychology

An introduction to the special issue addressing positive psychology and its “place” in and implications for schools is provided. The articles contained within the issue are described within the context of our perspective regarding positive psychology in schools. As the study of positive psychology continues to evolve, it is likely that its application within other fields (including school psychology) will be more clearly expressed. We contend that the “success” of introducing, implementing, and sustaining positive psychology within schools may be dependent on its early yet also sustained integration across multiple contexts. And, a “positive” school psychology will require attention to the convergence of multiple, diverse areas of literature. The articles within this special issue begin this movement toward finding either a place for positive psychology within school psychology or a place for school psychology within positive psychology. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 41: 1–5, 2004.     

Reflecting on the Role of Competence and Culture in Consultation at the International Level

International educational consultation is challenging work that requires not only attention to best practices in consultation but also additional focus on cultural norms and regularities. In the three articles of this special issue, the consultation competencies of consultants play a critical role, as exemplified by entry issues, problem-solving practices, and relationship development. In addition, the overriding issue of culture and how it impacts consultation requires special attention for the international consultant as consultants attempt to use their expertise in new contexts.     

Editorial: e‐Research for education: Applied,methodological and critical perspectives

This special issue brings together a set of contributions that represent and explore the state of the art regarding the development and application of digital technology‐enhanced research approaches in educational research—e‐research for education. Over the recent years, digital technologies have enhanced various aspects of scholarly practices, such as data collection and analysis, research collaboration, and publishing. New technology‐enhanced research approaches have been emerging in a number of educational research domains, such as learning analytics, educational data mining, digital ethnography and educational informatics. Although the potential of digital approaches has been generally acknowledged, many overarching conceptual and methodological questions remain unexplored and under‐theorised. This special issue provides a landmark collection that synthesises some important empirical and methodological advances in this research field, including methodologically innovative case studies and critical analyses of overarching epistemological, methodological and practical issues that inevitably will shape future developments of this research field.     

Peer Review in Science Education: An Introduction

This is an introduction to a special issue of Research in Science Education that focuses on peer review in science education. We introduce each of the articles in the special issue and highlight some of the issues that are addressed and the methods employed in the articles that follow. We regard peer review as central to issues of research in science education and publication of this special issue as just in time.     

Steps for Applying the Complex Dynamical Systems Approach in Educational Research: A Guide for the Perplexed Scholar

Abstract

In this commentary, we propose a framework for applying the Complex Dynamical Systems (CDS) approach in educational research. Drawing on the conceptual articles in the special issue for ontological, theoretical, and methodological principles, and on the empirical articles for examples of these principles’ application, we suggest six interdependent steps for researchers who seek to pursue educational research from the CDS approach: (1) Conceptualizing the phenomenon as a CDS; (2) Defining a theory of the relevant CDS level; (3) Generating a CDS research goal and question; (4) Selecting a CDS corresponding methodology for data collection and analysis; (5) Interpreting the findings as a CDS; and (6) Disseminating the knowledge to relevant audiences and participating in a CDS scholarly community. We end the commentary with several of the promises and challenges of applying the CDS approach in educational research.     

Intelligence Recreated

Many of us are frustrated with the overuse of intelligence tests. But intelligence tests have become so entrenched in our society that it is hard to imagine how they realistically could be replaced. Schools would be without a well-established screening device, and intelligence research would be without an external measure of validity. But what if we started over and imagined thinking about intelligence without the benefit (some would say hindrance) of Binet? What would theories and tests of intelligence look like? The articles in this special issue address this topic; here, I discuss the articles. The discussion is divided into three sections. The first section deals with definitional issues: How can intelligence be operationally defined, and can a single definition capture cognitive abilities of individuals at all ages? The second section briefly summarizes and evaluates each of the seven theories: How intelligent are these theories of intelligence? The final section focuses on the implications of the theories and theory-based tests reported in this issue: How can future research and educational practices benefit from the views presented here?     

Whither social theory?

What is the place of social theory in mathematics education research, and what is it for? This special issue of Educational Studies in Mathematics offers insights on what could be the role of some sociological theories in a field that has historically privileged learning theories coming from psychology and mathematics as the main theoretical frames informing research. Although during the last 10 years the term “socio-cultural” has become part of the accepted and widespread trends of mathematics education research when addressing learning, this issue gathers a collection of papers that depart from a “socio-cultural” approach to learning and rather deploy sociological theories in the analysis of mathematics education practices. In this commentary paper, we will point to what we see to be the contributions of these papers to the field. We will do so by highlighting issues that run through the six papers. We will try to synthetize what we think are the benchmarks of the social approach to mathematics education that they propose. We will also take a critical stance and indicate some possible extensions of the use of social theory that are not addressed in this special issue but nonetheless are worth being explored for a fuller understanding of the “social” in mathematics education.