Whether faculty research affects college student learning has long been the subject of debate. Previous studies use subjective measures of student learning; focus on correlation rather than causation; and typically focus on one college, thus lacking generalizability. Using unique, large-scale survey and assessment data that we collected from…

Teacher reports on school organizational functioning, curricular processes, and student engagement are a reliable means of ascertaining valuable information about classroom climate and learning outcomes. Yet, to date, the vast majority of quantitative teacher-reported data, where teachers themselves reach judgments about educational processes,…

Researcher-practitioner partnerships have gained increasing prominence within education in recent years, yet scholarship on partnerships and tools to guide partnerships' work remain in their infancy. Drawing on our own work in a partnership as well as analysis of abstracts for the 41 partnerships funded by the Institute of Education Sciences and…

This article presents the author's response to comments on her article, "Will a Clinical Approach Make Education Research More Relevant for Practice?", which focused on the question of whether a clinical research practice might make education research more relevant for practice. The characteristics of a clinical approach are: (1) an overlap in the…

Three issues emanating from the Bulterman-Bos article (2008) form the core of this commentary. First, the issue of relevancy is addressed from the standpoint of action research and other forms of practitioner inquiry. From this perspective, the divisions between the cultures of university and school are addressed both ways: Each can potentially be…

Responds to a theme issue, "Research for Doctoral Students in Education (vol.30, 5), " asserting that the continua presented in the articles fail to legitimize research done by school practitioners on site. Discusses issues related to differences in rigor, status, and purpose between practitioner and other research. Recommends that education…

Critiques Anderson's response to the theme issue, "Research for Doctoral Students in Education," asserting that questions he raises have few straightforward answers. Agrees that because efforts to study and improve educational practice too often impose abstract findings on school and teachers, it is important to develop a literature based in…

Reviews the work of Joe L. Kincheloe, who extends postmodern political theory into the realm of cognitive theory when writing about children, intelligence, or workers. For Kincheloe, teaching, researching, and social justice are so intertwined as to be indistinguishable. (SLD)

Examines various factors creating conflicts and misunderstandings among practitioner researchers and Institutional Review Boards (IRBs), describing the meaning of research, ethical difficulties arising from practitioner research, what makes IRBs obstructive, improvements in relations between IRBs and practitioner researchers, and the need to deal…

Recommends moving from debates between spectators and actors about knowledge and practice to discussions about how all educators can foster good judgment, outlining Aristotle's and Kant's accounts of judgment, which ultimately privilege spectators, and introducing Arendt's work. Arendt linked thinking and acting without privileging either in her…

Expands the debate over the conflicts between cognitive theory and situated learning from theoretical considerations, to include concerns of educators engaged in classroom-based research and instructional design in collaboration with teachers. Considers the treatments of meaning and instructional goals from the perspectives of cognitive theory and…

Summarizes issues raised by E. D. Wong (1995) on the teacher as researcher that argued the presence of conflict of purpose and conduct. Argues that while conflict of purpose or conduct may not exist, tension does exist in terms of research time and tasks. Further argues that the conflict-versus-compatibility issue can be transcended. (GR)

Asserts that teacher research can provide a missing dimension to the knowledge base for teaching. Discusses critical issues of institutionalization and methodological rigor that make it difficult for teachers to conduct research studies and for the university community to acknowledge the value of teacher research. (FMW)

Wong has argued that the role of the teacher/researcher is full of conflict in that the pull of either students or research may affect commitment to the other. It is argued that research is not inherently conflictual, but that one teacher/researcher's tension is another's intention. (SLD)

Discusses the recent interest in teacher research and inquiry, arguing that part of what makes it an official movement is that teacher research stems from various intellectual traditions and educational projects. Identifies five trends that characterize the movement and discusses the future of the movement in the face of current reforms that…