In a randomized controlled trial (RCT), treatments are assigned randomly and treatments are withheld from participants. Is it ethically permissible to conduct an RCT in a social setting? This paper addresses two conditions for justifying RCTs: that there should be a state of equipoise and that the trial should be scientifically promising.…

Social network research on teachers and schools has risen exponentially in recent years as an innovative method to reveal the role of social networks in education. However, scholars are still exploring ways to incorporate traditional quantitative methods of Social Network Analysis (SNA) with qualitative approaches to social network research. This…

This article presents a dialogic qualitative interview design for a narrative study of six international UK university students' motivation for learning English. Based on the work of Mikhail Bakhtin, this design was developed in order to address the limitations of member-checking [Lincoln, Y. S., and E. G. Guba. 1985. "Naturalistic…

In this methodological discussion, the authors detail and reflect on the processes of using photo-elicitation interviewing as a way to align with positive qualitative methodologies, to gain access to participant beliefs and values, and to highlight participant voices through their choices of words and visuals. A review of the literature and an…

Video is currently used in many studies to document the interaction in conversation analytical (CA) studies on learning. The discussion on the method used in these studies has primarily focused on the analysis or the data construction, whereas the relation between data construction and analysis is rarely brought to attention. The aim of this…

This paper draws on data from a project undertaken with children (N?=?72) in Mongolia and Zambia. The research is distinctive in bringing together diverse children, ranging from those living on the street to those in mainstream education and involving them in discussions about educational research. Being conscious of critiques of adult-initiated…

The present paper discusses three types of research perspective on the insider-outsider continuum: outsider research, (insider's) outsider research, and insider research. It examines the essential features of the insider-outsider distinction with reference to categories such as researcher, students, classroom context, contribution, control of…

Relying on a critical pedagogy framework and youth participatory action research (YPAR) and visual sociology methods, the authors of this article--teachers, teacher educators, and community activists--have worked with photo elicitation methods and young adults in the USA and Haiti to document youths' impressions of the purposes of, supports…

Involving children and young people in educational research has been foundational in developing and understanding theories of learning, and understanding child development. Attempts to identify children's perspectives on policies and practices that directly affect them in educational settings have resulted in an increase in the involvement of…

We present here a reflexive and critical commentary and exemplification of the teaching and learning of research methodology. The paper focuses on the teaching/learning of qualitative data analysis. It is our belief that it is essential to "do" data analysis when learning about the process and that there are serious limitations to…

Arts/Humanities researchers frequently do not explain methodology overtly; instead, they "perform" it through their use of language, textual and historic cross-reference, and theory. Here, methodologies from literary studies are shown to add to Higher Education (HE) an exegetical and critically pluralist approach. This includes…

This paper addresses Lincoln's [2010. "'What a long, strange trip it's been …': Twenty-five years of qualitative and new paradigm research." "Qualitative Inquiry" 16, no. 1: 3-9] call for greater attention to the question of rapport in qualitative research through a reflexive examination of…

This paper addresses some fundamental methodological and ethical issues confronting non-Chinese researchers undertaking research in Hong Kong Chinese society. Among other things, it considers problems pertaining to data collection, the challenges of data interpretation, and the implication that this has for research. Whilst the issues are by no…

During a recent research project, it became apparent that the conventional taxonomic, textual and linguistic devices used to develop the narrative of a manuscript would not allow me to make sense, or tell the complex story, of my inquiry. I needed to employ multimodal approaches to grapple with the project related to artists who work in…

This paper explores the methodological politics of researching at the intersections of sexuality, culture and religion in secondary schools. It draws on experiences during a project concerned with how to address cultural and religious diversity in sexuality education in Australia and New Zealand. The paper focuses on two methodological sticking…