Recognizing the negative outcomes associated with experiences in bullying at school, educational researchers, school officials, and policy-makers have called for more rigorous research on bullying in school. Research on bullying behavior in school has primarily been examined using quantitative methods. Mixed methods research in the field of…

Western educational researchers have eagerly accepted activity theory (AT) also known as cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) to collect and analyze data in rich description of complex situations. As this theory is applicable to a wide variety of disciplines, this review is limited to education and specifically to qualitative studies of…

In this article, James Noonan uses portraiture to examine how the administrative team and the teachers at a small, urban middle school approach school improvement. He illustrates the ways in which the pressures associated with attempting school reform in our current high-accountability environment make it difficult for school personnel to engage…

This article describes our evolution as two Black American women academics who, after years of dealing with our community's marginalization and our own marginalization in the academy, began to employ research as a way of surviving. To share the significance of this experience, we first reflect on our understandings of our positionality within the…

In this article, educational scholars L. Janelle Dance, Rochelle Gutierrez, and Mary Hermes share insights from their lived experience as qualitative researchers trying to work in collaboration with diverse populations. They refer to these insights as "improvisations on conventional qualitative methods," reminding readers that their methodological…

This study addresses educational reform in Ghana with reference to the junior secondary schooling. The empirical data on junior secondary teachers and pupils used here is taken from a larger case study of the junior secondary school innovation in Ghana. This offers some new perspectives on the realities of Ghanaian junior secondary schooling,…

To achieve its aim of deepening understanding of the complexities of learning in Further Education (FE), the Transforming Learning Cultures in FE (TLC) project developed a model of learning as a cultural activity. The purpose of this paper is to explore the implications of taking a cultural view, not of learning, but of the research itself. The…

Drawing on experiences in his social studies classroom, Houman Harouni evaluates both the challenges and possibilities of helping high school students develop critical research skills. The author describes how he used Wikipedia to design classroom activities that address issues of authorship, neutrality, and reliability in information gathering.…

This article responds to Shelby Gilbert's "A Study of Ogbu and Simon's Thesis." The author begins by saying that he thinks that this study of examining Ogbu and Simons' thesis (to investigate school performance of Black immigrant and non-immigrant students in the United States) makes a thought-provoking contribution to overall discussions…

Relational reasoning, the ability to discern meaningful patterns within otherwise unconnected information, is regarded as central to human learning and cognition and as particularly critical for those functioning in today's information age. However, the literature on this foundational ability is currently housed within a range of domains of…

Current legislation requires educational practices be informed by science. The effort to establish educational practices supported by science has, to date, emphasized experiments with large numbers of participants who are randomly assigned to an intervention or control condition. A potential limitation of such an emphasis at the expense of other…

Given the long history of effect size (ES) indices (Olejnik and Algina, "Contemporary Educational Psychology," 25, 241-286 2000) and various attempts by APA and AERA to encourage the reporting and interpretation of ES to supplement findings from inferential statistical analyses, it is essential to document the impact of APA and AERA standards on…

To counteract what we see as a growing research-reporting concern, we propose the following editorial-policy change regarding the content of primary research articles in educational research journals: Contributors should restrict their discussion and conclusions to their data and not offer recommendations for educational practice nor speculate…

In the present paper we systematically review the corpus of evidence on the effects of need supportive teaching on early adolescents' motivation and engagement for school. Based on Self-Determination Theory, we define need supportive teaching in terms of teachers' provision of autonomy support, structure, and involvement. The results of an…

This article addresses the issue of the plurality of theories and perspectives in education research, and introduces postperspectival theory as a means to work with this plurality. Three pieces of research are discussed, all focusing on children's learning of numbers, one taking a cognitivist perspective, the other two a more sociocultural…