Responds to an essay that examined the role of whites in multicultural education and reviewed three books, critiquing five of the essay's assumptions (e.g., there is a white movement in multicultural education, attention to whites' role in multicultural education is very recent, and the focus on white identity development in multicultural…

Responds to an essay that examined the role of whites in multicultural education, reviewed three books, and discussed the role of racial/cultural identity in teaching and learning. Notes that the essay is sometimes at odds with facts found in one of the books it reviews, suggesting that the essay helps perpetuate the inadequacy of white teachers…

Responds to an essay that examined the role of whites in multicultural education and reviewed three books on the subject, agreeing with the essay's assertion that having a positive white racial identity does not an antiracist educator make; questioning the essay's interpretation of the term marginalization regarding diverse students; and agreeing…

Responds to an article on school choice by suggesting that much more is known about the politics of issues related to school choice and privatization than the article reveals, partly from what has occurred with educational vouchers and charter schools in the United States and partly from lessons learned from voucher plans in other countries. (SM)

Critiques Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot's and Jessica Hoffmann Davis' work, "The Art and Science of Portraiture," from a postmodern perspective, critically examining assumptions and methods of portraiture, questioning the portraitist's authority in arbitrarily and unilaterally creating portraits, and suggesting that the problem with portraiture as a…

Responds to a critique of an article, "Poor School Funding, Child Poverty, and Mathematics Achievement", noting that the critique for the most part agrees with the major claims in the original article, but cautioning that the critique also makes several claims about what the original article says that are untrue, unjust and confusing. (SM)

Responds to an article on how research shaped educational policy, examining misrepresented policymaking activities, correcting mistakes about the range and utility of National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) research on reading, correcting misperceptions of NICHD-supported research efforts that might arise in the minds of…

Examines one recent, influential reading methods study as an example of research that is overly promoted by the media and misused by policymakers and educational leaders to support a simple solution to raising the literacy of young children living in poverty. Suggests the study does not meet important criteria, questioning the wisdom of basing…

Responds to a critique of an article on the advantage of reading instructional approaches emphasizing explicit instruction in the alphabetic principle for at-risk children. While the critique suggested it was an over-simplistic solution to a complex problem, this response suggests there are some instructional principles that can be used to enhance…

Offers two reasons for keeping educational research firmly within the domain of science: to maintain self-correcting progress for educational theory and to maintain the reputation of educational research as a scientific enterprise. Suggests that a possible reconciliation to the two sides on this issue is to use quantitative and qualitative data in…

Discusses various facets of curriculum theorizing in education, describing five characteristics of contemporary curriculum theorizing and expanding on two: (1) the politics of social and cultural theory and social difference, which undergirds and is the dominant premise from which much curriculum, theorizing is currently undertaken and (2) the…

Critiques an article on poor school funding, child poverty, and mathematics achievement, suggesting it distorts the interpretation of prior research and presents a flawed interpretation of new research. Hypothesizes that the level of school funding and incidence of childhood poverty exert substantial, independent causal effects on student…

Critiques an article about problems with underqualified secondary teachers and out-of-field teaching. Discusses the influence of subject knowledge on student learning, noting that literature suggests its impact is of little consequence. While research does not blame out-of-field teaching for students' inferior international assessment performance,…

Deciphers calls for clarity surrounding postmodern theory in education, examining Constas' 1998 article, "Deciphering Postmodern Educational Research." Highlights three problems with Constas' attempts to decipher postmodernism: attempts to enlighten postmodernism, lack of attention to the body of work on postmodernism and educational research, and…

Illustrates how intelligibility works in postmodern educational research, discussing how postmodern critiques shift the meaning and significance of the concept of relativism. Explains how the concept can be interpreted in one way within a particular set of conditions and entirely reworked in another. Criticizes omissions in Constas' 1998 typology…