John Radford's original article (Radford, 2008a) asked some hard questions about the content and purpose of a degree in psychology. The original article prompted a number of replies and a rejoinder from Radford (2008b). In the spirit of carrying on the discussion started by Radford and others, this article offers two personal perspectives on our…

Recently, the long-standing, though relatively low key, debate surrounding certification requirements for career and technical instructors at the postsecondary level has been revived as a critical issue. These discussions have lead to extensive examination of: (1) current credential requirements for instructors; (2) recent changes to state and…

Universities have long struggled with balancing their core instruction, research, and service missions with the win-at-all-costs mentality of spectator sports. Indeed, much has been written about the athletics-academic debate. Unfortunately, the athletics-academic debate often masks the complexity of characterizing athletics programs as either…

The students in three sections of a class rated their knowledge and identified their view before and after each of five in-class debates. The degree of self-reported knowledge was significantly different after four of the five debates. Between 31% and 58% of participants changed their views after participating in or observing each debate. Some…

This article reports on findings pertaining to scholarship in teacher education drawn from a wider study on all education research in South Africa from 1995 to 2006. The study, which defined education research as broadly pertaining to teaching and/or learning, obtained extensive data from a wide range of sources: universities, non-government…

This study investigates whether combining chat discussion and construction of an argument diagram stimulates students to formulate new ideas in practising argumentation. In this study, 16 secondary school students discussed vivisection and gender equality in pairs using both free and structured chat tools. In structured chat, the students selected…

The campaigns of Senator John McCain and Senator Barack Obama engaged in a sharp and testy exchange on education last week, making the topic the center of debate for the first time since the long race for the presidency began. Neither candidate changed course on the policies he is promising to pursue. However, Obama sought to distinguish himself…

In this article, the author shares some of the tricky discussions he has presented to his students in his "Argument and Persuasion" course, a second-level writing class designed to develop students' skills in reasoning, conducting research, and writing essays. He relates how this course always makes it difficult for him to be neutral when…

The intention to introduce a form of post qualification application (PQA) for entry to UK universities has provoked considerable interest, debate and controversy, not least over its impact on diversifying the intake of undergraduates gaining entry to the allegedly most prestigious universities and courses. We review the arguments and evidence…

This article discusses the relations between participatory action research and feminist research, through an examination of the metaphor of "voice" and its possible replacement with the idea of "knowledge." The article describes in detail a participatory action research project undertaken in Israel, which was aimed at forging…

This study examines the relationship between intercollegiate forensics competitors' organizational identification and organizational culture. Through a survey analysis of 314 intercollegiate forensics students, this study reports three major findings. First, this study found male competitors identify with forensics programs more than female…

It is common to understand the governing of rural space as the outcome of a conflict between some romantic protectors of a lost past on the one hand, and the people who worry about creating economic values on the other. However, the power to shape the rural should not only be searched for in the open struggle between protectors and developers, but…

Two papers in the "European Physical Education Review" by Colwell (1999) and Mansfield (this issue) have argued respectively against, and in favour of, a potential synthesis between feminism and figurational sociology as a vehicle for making more adequate sense of physical education and sport. This paper offers both selective summaries and…

One shortcoming in the literature on policy framing has been the absence of analytic models through which to explicate change. This paper advances research in this area in three related ways. First, it links policy frames to the actors who employ them. Second, based upon this linkage it proposes two complementary approaches for examining…

This article reports on the dispute about the creation of an institute named for the late economist and free-market advocate Milton Friedman at the University of Chicago. Five months after the University of Chicago announced plans to invest $200-million in an economics institute named for the late Milton Friedman, the project is still generating…