Understanding Learning for Teaching

Educational researchers are concerned about the ways in which researcher identity can influence practice and findings for better or worse effect. However, writings which offer narratives, intended to instruct others in the ways in which the positioning and reflexivity of the researcher operates for better or worse, often present a view of identity as singular, fixed and stable. In this paper we trouble this view of identity as represented in the notion of inside/outside researchers. We reconsider a project in which we worked with a group of pupil researchers to investigate bullying in their school. We show how our identities multiplied and shifted throughout the project in ways that we can see more clearly in hindsight. We mobilize Zygmunt Bauman’s notion of ‘fluid identities’ and argue that the inside/outside binary may be politically helpful but also limiting of understandings of the real politic and experience of messy research practice in and with schools.     

Revealing,reinterpreting, rewriting mujeres

This paper reanalyzed research previously conducted with Spanish-speaking childcare providers who participated in an educational literacy program. The women in the program were generally framed as the deficient other – illiterate, immigrant women. The authors used a critical framework and Chicana/Latina feminist methodologies, namely pláticas y encuentros (talks and encounters), to investigate, reanalyze, and reinterpret the data. Through the process, the authors not only revealed the inner flame of the participants in the study, but through the collision of their own worldviews, they also exposed more deeply the assumptions buried within their epistemologies, methodologies, and positionalities. The results speak to the importance of critical examinations of power and discourses in education that often reside unexamined, or perhaps examined but largely unpublished, in our research.     

A methodological framework for studying policy-oriented teacher inquiry in qualitative research contexts

System-based and collaborative teacher inquiry has unexplored potential that can impact educational policy in numerous ways. This impact can be increased when teacher inquiry builds momentum from classrooms and teaching practices and simultaneously addresses district, state, and national discourses and networks. In this conceptual paper, I encourage scholars and practitioners to consider ways to methodologically, theoretically, and collectively strengthen teacher research and inquiry to increase its impact on policy. I propose a methodological framework for policy-oriented teacher inquiry that highlights multilayered research approaches and collaborative inquiry. I situate my arguments and the proposed framework in the context of qualitative research and Marx’s dialectic method.     

量化研究与质性研究的认识论、方法论比较--兼论研究生研究能力的全面培养

量化研究和质性研究作为两大传统的研究方法,对研究生研究能力的形成产生深远的影响。本文从认识论、理论与方法论层面对两种研究传统进行比较分析,并在此基础上讨论研究生研究能力的重构、全面形成和衡量标准问题,为当前环境下全面培养研究生的研究能力提供更为清晰的概念框架和具有可操作性的实施建议。     

Case studies in history education: thinking action research through an epistemological framework

ABSTRACT

Key studies in history education (from France and the USA) are discussed and compared in order to explore their methodological issues in terms of the types of knowledge they can generate about teaching and learning. An epistemological framework that relates the history of historians as an inquiry to that of the classroom provides the criteria for this comparative analysis, which is inscribed in Abbott’s epistemologico-institutional social sciences analysis through the identification of two basic debates that structure history education research, namely subject-matter knowledge vs pedagogical practices, and teaching and learning rules of methods vs habits of thinking. This analysis points out the conditions for the development of a formative school history inquiry (to have students work on their own explanations, to put into play their set of beliefs about history), which determine the modalities of a specific action research. These modalities are detailed by the example of an action research on the case of the teaching of the French Revolution in the last grade of primary school: the sharing of pedagogical (by the professor) and academic (by the researchers) decisions, the collective production of data throughout the process.     

透视教育现象学——论教育现象学研究中的三个基本问题

现象学及其运动给当代社会科学特别是教育学研究带来的变革,主要体现在它所开拓的研究领域以及它带来的看待事物的态度和方法的变化。教育现象学是受现象学运动影响而发展起来的教育研究新取向,它在本体论、认识论和方法论方面都有别于传统教育研究。教育现象学以具体情境中的生活体验为研究起点,赋予生命体验以本体论地位;它努力克服传统理论与实践分离的客观认识论,突出一种实践的认识论,即强调教育及其研究不可脱离情感意向、他人意识以及对践行的追求;在方法论上,它强调在反思生活体验的基础上,通过本质直观直接把握现象的本质。教育现象学理论的新颖性给教育研究带来了新气象。     

A pluralist view of generalization in qualitative research

A common way of discussing generalisation is to search for one conception – a monist view. Another approach is to create a dichotomy between quantitative and qualitative research, each having a single definition – a dualist perspective. A pluralist view is argued for here, i.e. the existence of several lines of reasoning, each of which can be evaluated in specific cases in terms of usefulness, strengths and weaknesses. Five different lines of reasoning about generalization, which could possibly be useful in qualitative research, are presented. They are: ‘studies that undermine established universal “truths”’, ‘the ideographic study’, ‘enhancing the generalisation potential by maximizing variation’, ‘generalisation through context similarity’ and ‘generalisation through recognition of patterns.’ Each is critically commented on.     

Postgraduate conception of research methodology: implications for learning and teaching

This qualitative inquiry investigates postgraduate students’ conceptions of research methodology and how it contributes to their learning. It explores factors likely to motivate student choice of research methodology and challenges in understanding research methods. The research was carried out at research-intensive universities in New Zealand and in Malaysia with similar postgraduate programmes. Participants were enrolled in Masters and Ph.D. programmes. Findings revealed that participants share a recognition that research methodology is a significant body of knowledge in postgraduate education. However, there were noticeable differences in perspectives regarding what constitutes research methodology and whether or not it should be conceived as a discipline. To some participants, learning research methodology is less of a discipline but rather an acquisition of a set of isolated facts and skills without necessarily acquiring a deeper understanding of research. Furthermore, postgraduate students choose research methodology based on a number of factors such as familiarity with a method, methodological orientation of the primary supervisor, the domain of study, and the nature of research problems pursued. Participants reported that the key challenges they face in understanding research methodology include framing research questions, understanding the theory or literature and its role in shaping research outcomes, and difficulties in performing data analysis.     

试论重演教学法

本文以“三大重演律”和三个推论为根据探索了重演教学法的机制、模式、根据和作用。从方法论的高度 ,论述了重演教学法在模型与模拟、思维训练以及文学艺术中的广泛应用。阐明了当前重演教学法的突破性研究。     

Putting ourselves on the line: the epistemology of the hyphen,intersubjectivity and social responsibility in qualitative research

As researchers, we are intertwined in our research relationships in two ways that put us on the line. First, our very beings are co-constituted and developed in an intersubjective exchange with the people we work with. Acknowledging our interdependence frees us to take an empathetic and hermeneutic stance that I have termed the epistemology of the hyphen, in our qualitative research relationships, and in the process, reject the objectivist, dissociative mode of procuring research. Instead, we produce knowledge that is socially responsible by virtue of its grounding in empathy and care. Second, I suggest that we are also on the line when it comes to the relationship between ourselves, and our audiences. The constraints and freedoms that contour our voices as qualitative researchers shape not only the stories we tell about our participants, but also ourselves as human beings. We must incorporate affect into our reports for them to do justice to ourselves, our readers and listeners, and our participants.     

Methodological considerations in child-centered research about social difference and children experiencing difficulties at school

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the ethical and methodological significance for children and university researchers to participate together in data collection and research interpretation. We examine this process in the context of a three-year study with the aim of understanding how children become identified as having difficulties in a diverse, semi-urban minority French-speaking Catholic elementary school in Ontario (Canada). First, we review the literature on child informed consent. Then, we describe the setting and the process of how children in this study became informed participants. We describe how the children became active in exercising their discretionary consent to be observed during the data collection process, then how they progressively became engaged in observing their social context in terms of their own sense-making of the research project. We discuss how the children gave a new direction to the original project proposed by the university research team investigating on identification and special needs children. Lastly, we revisit the ways in which we addressed the various subject positions that became possible for us and for the children as co-researchers within the social relations of the classroom-based research team in a French minority language school. It became apparent throughout the research that informing consent was more than an act on the part of researchers to explain and thus establish a research framework in which collecting data from children would take place. Rather, we found that our research with children involved children's active participation as co-researchers informing the project from its design to its data analysis.     

质的研究——访谈法探析

由于社会科学研究涉及到人的理念、意义建构和语言表达,因此访谈法便成为社会科学研究中使用广泛的一种研究方法。这种方法可以从被研究者那里获得他们思想和行为的第一手资料,同时也可以站在被研究者的角度理解他们的行为和意义建构,从而弥补量化研究带来的种种缺憾,更好地服务于教育教学研究工作。     

Challenges and promises of overcoming epistemological and methodological partiality: Advancing engineering education through acceptance of diverse ways of knowing

The purpose of this paper is to explore some challenges and promises when the epistemological diversity embedded in qualitative research traditions is introduced to research communities with one dominant research paradigm, such as engineering education. Literature is used from other fields and empirical data are used from engineering education, including the practices of the European Journal of Engineering Education and the Journal of Engineering Education, with the expectation that the ideas that are presented are relevant to a broad range of education disciplines. A number of challenges are identified as the epistemological diversity of qualitative research is introduced to the primarily positivist field of engineering education. Ultimately, embracing epistemological diversity holds the promise of researchers being able to ask: ‘What questions and answers become possible from these newly created positions and what can be learned from these alternative approaches?’.     

On the need for expanded guidance in navigating ethical learning research at science museums

Science learning occurs throughout people's lives, inside and outside of school, in formal, informal, and nonformal settings. While museums have long played a role in science education, learning in this and other informal settings has not been studied nor understood as deeply as in formal settings (i.e., schools and classrooms). This position paper, written by learning researchers in a science museum engaged in equity and access work, notes that while the researchers consider the ethics of their work regularly and deeply, little formal guidance exists for the ethical challenges they routinely face in studying science learning. To explore this, the paper first shares contexts of studying informal science education at the Science Museum of Minnesota, including epistemological understandings of both science and research, a commitment to justice-based equity, and existing ethical guidance and processes. Drawing on three research projects, it explores ethical issues pertaining to (a) museum visitors and (b) museum staff and community members engaging in participatory research. First, as visitors do not generally come to a museum to be part of a research study, learning researchers must consider sampling, representation, and data collection methods, balancing these with a museum-goer's desires for their visit. Second, when using participatory methodologies with staff, community members, and young people as co-researchers, ethical considerations involve building relationships, redefining (unanticipated) risks, and data collection and dissemination practices that do not extend existing social inequities or work hierarchies. Ultimately, this position paper argues for expanded or revised ethical guidance that meets the needs of this work, surpasses current guidelines or institutional review board practices, draws on epistemologies outside of a supposedly neutral, individualistic Western framework, and places participants at the center of the work. Such a discussion could enhance the ethical study of science learning across settings.     

“三要素”：逻辑悖论研究的历史性界标--张建军教授逻辑悖论研究思想探赜

张建军教授析出的逻辑悖论“三要素”,即“公认正确的背景知识”“严密无误的逻辑推导”和“可以建立矛盾等价式”,为澄清逻辑悖论的本质认识及其基本结构奠定了基础。“三要素”内在地包含了分析逻辑悖论的基本方法,解决逻辑悖论的基本路向,以及解决逻辑悖论的一般评准,为充分发挥逻辑悖论研究的方法论功能与认识论价值奠定了基础。“三要素”在逻辑悖论研究的历程中具有历史性界标意义。     

略谈一般与个别的辩证法

一般与个别的辩证法，具有重要的本体论、认识论、方法论意义，弱化或取消这对范畴是不妥当的。章从历史和现实的角度阐释了这对范畴的内涵和实质，以及研究这对范畴的重要价值。     

试论对策研究的方法问题

对策研究是针对特定问题,进行全面的分析、论证、比较和优选,最终提出解决问题的对策。它可分为宏观对策研究即战略性研究;中观对策研究即政策性研究;微观对策研究即方案性研究。一般来说,一个成功的对策研究必须包括认识、方法和写作三个步骤。     

Beyond ‘talking out of school’: educational researchers as public intellectuals

This conceptual article explores the notion of educational researchers operating as public intellectuals. To do this, I situate my analysis within a broader tradition of public intellectual work in the American academy. I also offer a framework for three specific forms of public intellectual work, supported by relevant examples, which can be taken up by educational researchers. I then raise critical issues, concerns, and tensions that complicate such work, and conclude by offering suggestions for better linking educational research to the broader public. Although this article focuses largely on researchers working within the university context, particularly tenure-line faculty, many of its insights are applicable to independent researchers, policy analysts, or others working within the broadly defined field of educational research.