Analyzes how two national agendas in teacher education reform (deregulation and professionalization) are publicly constructed and debated, using public documents from each side and the arguments of the advocates themselves. Suggests that despite very different agendas, both discourses revolve around the establishment of three interrelated warrants…

Addresses an issue relevant to social science research: how to adjust conceptual orientations and methodological priorities to take into account apparently changing human experiences and priorities. Focuses on three confusing situations that confront ethnographers (the meaning of culture, the enthusiasm for ethnography, and the responsibility of…

Reflects on the obstacles, problems, and possibilities of incorporating visual culture into educational research, noting that this is a difficult task that has epistemological and methodological problems and that it challenges the blind spot created by more traditional ways of conducting educational research, but suggesting that it is worth the…

Used data from the Third International Math-Science Study to examine the working conditions and beliefs of Japanese, German, and United States teachers. Core teaching practices and teacher beliefs showed little national variation, but other aspects of teachers' work showed variation. Models of national cultures of learning may overemphasize…

Examines student performance from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), explaining that the test score component of the TIMSS has some technical problems that should be considered when interpreting results and that TIMSS country rankings should not be accepted at face value. Other technical issues hinge on instrument…

Critiques an article about social factors in Piaget's conceptualization of intellectual development, which ignored the integral role that language played in Piaget's writings on intellectual development. Questions the appropriateness of discarding these linguistic elements and notes that the article did not show how Piaget's early ideas on the…

Discusses how graduate education programs might develop researchers with the capacity to use multiple perspectives and methodologies. Argues that graduate schools of education should prepare students to pursue epistemological diversity that holds promise for effective change. (SM)

Uses E. Wenger's (1998) concept of community of practice to explore strategies for preparing doctoral students at research universities for the diversity of epistemological perspectives in contemporary educational research. Describes the ecology of epistemologies for educational research in terms of relations among communities of practice,…

Describes an interdisciplinary seminar that drew together doctoral students preparing for careers in educational research from diverse departments across a large school of education, detailing the seminar's work and changes in its design as faculty gained experience. Explores the faculty's intentions, students' responses, and pedagogical lessons…

Describes the processes and circumstances in which the school of education faculty at a research university grappled with questions about the proper preparation in research methodologies of doctoral students in education (e.g., how research methodologies should be taught and what proportion of doctoral study they should occupy). Explains how, in…

Critiques the work of leading reading researcher, Reid Lyon, who is the Director of Research at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), raising concerns about the following issues: "valid" and "reliable" science; the alphabetic principle; the naturalness of learning to read; neuroimaging of reading; and the political…

Uses child language development as a neutral field in which to contemplate the nature of knowledge, formulating three generalizations about knowledge from data on language acquisition and exemplifying each generalization with familiar phenomena observed in child language development. Suggests how the generalizations might relate to the use of…

Discusses learning that occurs beyond the classroom and home, identifying (through illustration of arts-based extracurricular activities) key features and educational benefits of this environment, the creative and critical power of youth work in the arts (particularly visual arts and dance), and manifest reasoning and organizing properties of the…

Summarized findings from a study of school choice in publicly funded schools in England and Wales, analyzing changes over time in students' characteristics and performance. Results indicated that the socioeconomic stratification of students declined after the introduction of choice policies. Standards in publicly funded schools rose relative to…

Expands on an ethnographic study of a California school district, examining how adults repeatedly asked how achievement was linked to race yet repeatedly suppressed the question, and exploring the role of educational research in the dynamics of talk and silence. An explanatory habit of framing isolated players as particularly responsible for…