bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Lake Wobegon Revisited: On Diversity and Education
Authors: Biemiller Andrew
Published: June 2007

I present the theses that current educational practices underestimate the magnitude of diversity in educational achievement and that disregarding diversity has the effect of widening the range of differences. I suggest that diversity in the rate of growth of capacity to process increasingly complex tasks partly underlies achievement differences. I propose a transactional model of the interaction of capacity differences and curriculum taught resulting in failure to achieve academic skill mastery by unnecessarily large numbers of children. I propose that reducing concern with "grade-level achievement" and increasing concern with academic mastery would have long-term educational benefits for individuals and society.
Where Is the Mind? Constructivist and Sociocultural Perspectives on Mathematical Development
Authors: Cobb Paul
Published: June 2007

Currently, considerable debate focuses on whether mind is located in the head or in the individual-in-social-action, and whether development is cognitive self-organization or enculturation into established practices. In this article, I question assumptions that initiate this apparent forced choice between constructivist and sociocultural perspectives. I contend that the two perspectives are complementary. Also, claims that either perspective captures the essence of people and communities should be rejected for pragmatic justifications that consider the contextual relevance and usefulness of a perspective. I argue that the sociocultural perspective informs theories of the conditions far the possibility of learning, whereas theories developed from the constructivist perspective focus on what students learn and the processes by which they do so.
Myths, Countermyths, and Truths About Intelligence
Authors: Sternberg Robert J.
Published: June 2007

Ten myths and countermyths about intelligence are considered, as well as what is currently our best account of the truth. We need to be circumspect in our claims for tests of intelligence and for what intelligence can tell us about people in general.
A History of the National Assessment of Educational Progress and Some Questions About Its Future
Authors: Jones Lyle V.
Published: June 2007

The initial aim of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) was to develop and then to employ procedures for monitoring achievement in the nation. Here, a history of NAEP is presented, with a special focus on procedural changes from 1969 to date. Then some questions are posed about future shifts in the purposes of NAEP. In offering answers to the questions, I argue that NAEP should continue to monitor achievement trends in the nation and in the participating states and that, because those objectives are not compatible with NAEP as a high-stakes accountability assessment program, NAEP should avoid serving this added purpose.
On Claims That Answer the Wrong Questions
Authors: Greeno James G.
Published: June 2007

Anderson, Reder, and Simon (1996) contested four propositions that they incorrectly called “claims of situated learning.” This response argues that the important differences between situative and cognitive perspectives are not addressed by discussion of these imputed claims. Instead, there are significant differences in the framing assumptions of the two perspectives. I clarify these differences by inferring questions to which Anderson et al.'s discussion provided answers, by identifying presuppositions of those questions made by Anderson et al., and by stating the different presuppositions and questions that I believe are consistent with the situative perspective. The evidence given by Anderson et al. is compatible with the framing assumptions of situativity; therefore, deciding between the perspectives will involve broader considerations than those presented in their article. These considerations include expectations about which framework offers the better prospect for developing a unified scientific account of activity considered from both social and individual points of view, and which framework supports research that will inform discussions of educational practice more productively. The cognitive perspective takes the theory of individual cognition as its basis and builds toward a broader theory by incrementally developing analyses of additional components that are considered as contexts. The situative perspective takes the theory of social and ecological interaction as its basis and builds toward a more comprehensive theory by developing increasingly detailed analyses of information structures in the contents of people's interactions. While I believe that the situative framework is more promising, the best strategy for the field is for both perspectives to be developed energetically.
International Achievement Differences: An Assessment of a New Perspective
Authors: Stedman Lawrence C.
Published: June 2007

In recent years, a new perspective has challenged the conventional wisdom that U.S. students do poorly in international assessments. It holds that sampling biases and a different curricular arrangement have made U.S. achievement appear low and that a focus on rankings has masked what are really small achievement differences among countries. To assess this perspective, I review evidence from the major international assessments of the past two decades, including the recent Third International Math and Science Study (TIMSS). I argue for a middle ground. U.S. performance has not been consistently poor, but varies by subject and grade. Ranks sometimes have exaggerated differences, but even developed countries often differ greatly in achievement. Contrary to a common misconception, the assessments have not unfairly compared the mass of U.S. students to small academic elites in other countries. Our poor math performance is not a simple matter of selection bias or course sequencing, but also reflects real deficiencies in curricular focus and teaching. These have been linked to our assembly-line cultural conception of knowledge and schooling. To ground the international findings, I summarize evidence on domestic indicators. Although trends have been generally stable, U.S. student achievement has been weak for several decades. Fundamental school reform is warranted.
The Promise and Perils of Alternative Forms of Data Representation
Authors: Eisner Elliot W.
Published: June 2007

This article addresses the potential strengths and weaknesses of alternative forms of data representation. As educational researchers become increasingly interested in the relationship between form of representation and form of understanding, new representational forms are being used to cońvey to "readers" what has been learned. These explorations are rooted in an expanding conception of the nature of knowledge and the relationship between what one knows and how it is represented. While new forms of representation have their potential virtues, they also have their limitations. The uses and limitations of these new methods are addressed in what follows.
The Unavoidable Intervention of Educational Research: A Framework for Reconsidering Researcher-Practitioner Cooperation
Authors: Wagner Jon
Published: June 2007

As a framework for stimulating further, empirical investigation, I describe three different forms of direct researcher practitioner cooperation: data-extraction agreements, clinical partnerships, and co-learning agreements. Each form reflects different social arrangements, inquiry and reporting strategies, and operating assumptions, and each form also has different implications for supporting educational research and reform. Distinctions between these three forms illustrate some of the unavoidable ways in which educational research projects are social interventions in the lives of project participants. This prospect raises questions about how researchers and practitioners could be better prepared to design them as such.
Contested Terrain: A History of Education Research in the United States, 1890–1990
Authors: Lagemann Ellen Condliffe
Published: June 2007

During the last 100 years, the history of education research has been marked by continuing contests among different groups, especially scholars of education, scholars in other fields and disciplines, school administrators, and teachers. To make sense of these contests, it is useful to understand them from a “system-of- professions” perspective in which professionalization is seen as an ongoing competition to secure jurisdiction in particular domains of human service. Viewed this way, the history of education research suggests that the development of wide support for education research will depend on surmounting the jurisdictional challenges that have heretofore precluded sustained agreement about the methods and focus of the field.
A Changing Terrain of Knowledge and Power: A Social Epistemology of Educational Research
Authors: Popkewitz Thomas S.
Published: June 2007

In the past decade, important struggles about the production of knowledge have taken place in history, the social sciences, and education. These struggles involve more than the “knowledge interests” that Habermas pointed to in the 1970s; instead, they point to important epistemological ruptures in the doctrines of “reason” that have dominated social and political debates since the late 19th century. This questioning reaches into the presuppositions of progress and power underlying intellectual work.

This article explores some of the main features of the controversies about knowledge by turning first to certain assumptions that guided social theory at least since the 19th century. The assumptions relate, for example, to the focus on human action (and agents) as purpose or explanation of theory, to the conceptualization of space and time, to the introduction of change as a problem of the administration of time (the control of process and development), and to the inscription of political and social doctrines of progress into science. My interest here, however, is not only in the disciplinary struggles, but also in the changing social conditions that make these debates possible. I look at the systems of reasoning in educational studies as social practices—what I have previously called “a social epistemology.” When we examine current discussions against 19th century assumptions about social theory, we are able to understand that the stakes of educational research are social and political as well as epistemological.
On Two Metaphors for Learning and the Dangers of Choosing Just One
Authors: Sfard Anna
Published: June 2007

This article is a sequel to the conversation on learning initiated by the editors of Educational Researcher in volume 25, number 4. The author’s first aim is to elicit the metaphors for learning that guide our work as learners, teachers, and researchers. Two such metaphors are identified: the acquisition metaphor and the participation metaphor. Subsequently, their entailments are discussed and evaluated. Although some of the implications are deemed desirable and others are regarded as harmful, the article neither speaks against a particular metaphor nor tries to make a case for the other. Rather, these interpretations and applications of the metaphors undergo critical evaluation. In the end, the question of theoretical unification of the research on learning is addressed, wherein the purpose is to show how too great a devotion to one particular metaphor can lead to theoretical distortions and to undesirable practices.
Science for All, Including Students From Non-English-Language Backgrounds
Authors: Lee Okhee , Fradd Sandra H.
Published: June 2007

Standards-based reform across subject areas has an overarching goal of achieving high academic standards for all students. Although much is known about what constitutes high academic standards, little attention has been given to the attainment of educational equity for all students. In this article, we propose the notion of instructional congruence as a way of making academic content accessible, meaningful, and relevant for diverse learners. Although our discussion considers students from non-English-language backgrounds (NELB) in science education, comparable approaches can be applied to other diverse student groups and other subject areas. We discuss an agenda for research, practice, and policy in promoting high standards for all students across subject areas.
"Extracting Sun-Beams out of Cucumbers": The Retreat From Practice in Reconceptualized Curriculum Studies
Authors: Wraga William G.
Published: June 2007

Reconceptualized curriculum theorizing is characterized by efforts to distance curriculum theory far from school practice. The characterization of the "reconceptualization" of the curriculum field as a shift from focus on developing curriculum to a preeminent concern for understanding curriculum and the proclivity to consider virtually all phenomena of life experience as acceptable subjects of curriculum inquiry are examples of a willingness to divorce curriculum theorizing from school practice. Rationales for explicitly distancing theory far from practice have been advanced, as well. This essay documents and explains these three manifestations of the theory-practice split in reconceptualized curriculum studies; evaluates this split against Dewey's educational theory, the obligations of professional schools to practicing professionals, and the ideal of the land-grant university; assesses selected recent proposals for reconceptualized curriculum practice; and suggests implications of the bifurcation of theory and practice for the curriculum field and for schooling. The theory-practice split advocated in reconceptualized curriculum theorizing is regarded as detrimental to the academic field of curriculum and to the prospect for improving curriculum practice in schools.
(Homo)sexualities, Organizations, and Administration: Possibilities for In(queer)y ,
Authors: CAPPER COLLEEN A.
Published: June 2007

The purpose of this paper is to consider the possibilities for research with lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender school administrators and for the broader study of queerness in schools as organizations. Scholars need to consider both modernist and postmodernist practicalities related to (a) significance, (b) research focus, (c) methods, and (d) theoretical perspectives. I also explore how sexualities shape and are shaped by organizational life. Researchers should explore the (hetero)sexual culture and structure of schools, and the (homo)sexual ruptures and resistances to heterosexuality.
Guidelines for Quality in Autobiographical Forms of Self-Study Research
Authors: Bullough Robert V. , Pinnegar Stefinee
Published: June 2007

The authors situate the origins of self-study in four developments within education: the growing prominence of naturalistic inquiry methods, the rise of the Reconceptualist movement in curriculum studies, the increased involvement of international scholars in teacher education research, and the re-emergence of action research and its variations. They focus on autobiography and correspondence (e-mail, letters, recorded conversations) not only because these are the dominant forms of self-study but because of the demands they present for producers and consumers. The work of C. Wright Mills (1959) is used to provide a framework for determining what makes a piece of self-study writing research. Mills argues that personal troubles cannot be solved as merely troubles, but must be understood in terms of public issues and history (p. 226). Insights are drawn from literary conventions. A set of guidelines are provided for consideration by self-study researchers in their quest for greater quality.
Tests Worth Teaching To: Constructing State-Mandated Tests That Emphasize Critical Thinking
Authors: Yeh Stuart S.
Published: June 2007

In this article, I argue that state-mandated tests should focus on critical thinking, defined as careful argumentation. This would mitigate the primary criticism of such tests—that they drive an instructional focus on rote factual learning. Conceptualizing critical thinking in terms of argumentation provides a simple, useful way to focus instruction and assessment according to the type of critical thinking that appears to be valued in the workplace. I give an example of how this concept could be translated into a forced-choice test item. A test that combines both open-ended and forced-choice items could be used to assess critical thinking in a practical, cost-effective way. If one accepts the premise that tests drive curriculum and instruction, perhaps the easiest way to reform instruction and improve educational quality is to construct better tests.
Making Mathematics Work for All Children: Issues of Standards, Testing, and Equity
Authors: Schoenfeld Alan H.
Published: June 2007

“Mathematics Education is a civil rights issue,” says civil rights leader Robert Moses, who argues that children who are not quantitatively literate may be doomed to second-class economic status in our increasingly technological society. The data have been clear for decades: poor children and children of color are consistently shortchanged when it comes to mathematics. More broadly, the type of mathematical sophistication championed in recent reform documents, such as the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics’ (2000) Principles and Standards for School Mathematics, can be seen as a core component of intelligent decision making in everyday life, in the workplace, and in our democratic society. To fail children in mathematics, or to let mathematics fail them, is to close off an important means of access to society’s resources. This article discusses the potential for providing high quality mathematics instruction for all students. It addresses four conditions necessary for achieving this goal: high quality curriculum; a stable, knowledgeable, and professional teaching community; high quality assessment that is aligned with curricular goals; and stability and mechanisms for the evolution of curricula, assessment, and professional development. The goal of this article is to catalyze conversations about how to achieve sustained, beneficial changes.
Enhancing Ethnic Diversity at a Big Ten University Through Project TEAM: A Case Study in Teacher Education
Authors: Bennett Christine I.
Published: June 2007

Project Transformative Educational Achievement Model (TEAM) is an instructional initiative designed to increase the number of students from underrepresented minorities at Indiana University who enter a teacher education program (P–12), complete their baccalaureate degree, and obtain teaching licensure in Indiana. A conceptual framework based on theories of campus climate and integrated pluralism, ethnic identity development, and teaching for social justice guides program development and inquiry. Longitudinal research since 1996 has identified four main themes that help explain the Project TEAM experience (a) creating community among students of color to mediate an alienating campus climate at a predominantly White university, (b) strengthening ethnic identity and an understanding of and ability to deal with racism, (c) working for social justice through multi-cultural education, and (d) professional development and commitment to teaching as a profession. This article provides an overview of program development, research methodology, and findings associated with the four themes as well as program success in recruiting, supporting, and graduating students of color.
This Ain’t Talk Therapy: Problematizing and Extending Anti-Oppressive Education
Authors: Butin Dan W.
Published: June 2007

Kumashiro (2001) argues that the “posts” perspectives—poststructuralism, postmodernism, and postcolonialism—are useful in furthering an anti-oppressive education in the core disciplines. This response elucidates some of the shortcomings of Kumashiro’s article, namely its misinterpretation of notions of oppression, rationality, and the individual within a “posts” perspective. A Foucauldian lens is employed to provide an alternative means by which to further a more constructive and less constrictive classroom environment. Specifically, this article suggests that a “posts” classroom must work under the construct of a “weak overcoming” that focuses on the structure of schooling and the organization of classroom practice.
Authorizing Students’ Perspectives: Toward Trust, Dialogue, and Change in Education
Authors: Cook-Sather Alison
Published: June 2007

This article argues for attending to the perspectives of those most directly affected by, but least often consulted about, educational policy and practice: students. The argument for authorizing student perspectives runs counter to U.S. reform efforts, which have been based on adults’ ideas about the conceptualization and practice of education. This article outlines and critiques a variety of recent attempts to listen to students, including constructivist and critical pedagogies, postmodern and poststructural feminisms, educational researchers’ and social critics’ work, and recent developments in the medical and legal realms, almost all of which continue to unfold within and reinforce adults’ frames of reference. This discussion contextualizes what the author argues are the twin challenges of authorizing student perspectives: a change in mindset and changes in the structures in educational relationships and institutions.
Experience and Responding
Authors: Glassman Michael
Published: June 2007

This article responds to the critiques by O’Brien and Prawat of my article, “Dewey and Vygotsky: Society, Experience, and Inquiry in Educational Practice.” The central point made by both authors concerns the relationship of process and product in Dewey’s educational philosophy. The authors argue that Dewey did not promote process over product in the classroom and that Dewey and Vygotsky are more similar in spirit and substance than my article suggests. However, when Dewey’s educational philosophy is viewed within the larger framework of instrumental pragmatism, there are clear reasons why Dewey would want to emphasize process (while not disregarding product) in day-to-day education. This article also responds to criticisms involving the relative emphasis Dewey and Vygotsky gave to issues of diversity and individual variance and to the development of ideas of the two theorists.
Accountability Systems: Implications of Requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001
Authors: Linn Robert L. , Baker Eva L. , Betebenner Damian W.
Published: June 2007

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 substantially increases the testing requirements for states and sets demanding accountability standards for schools, districts, and states with measurable adequate yearly progress (AYP) objectives for all students and subgroups of students defined by socioeconomic background, race–ethnicity, English language proficiency, and disability. However, states’ content standards, the rigor of their tests, and the stringency of their performance standards vary greatly. Consequently, the percentage of students who score at the proficient level or higher on the state assessments varies radically from state to state. Some states have farther to go than others to meet the mandated target of 100% proficient within 12 years. These differences are illustrated and the implications for achieving AYP targets are discussed. Also addressed are possible uses of results from the biennial state-level administrations of the National Assessment of Educational Progress as a means of leveling the playing field. Factors contributing to the volatility of gains in achievement from year to year for individual schools are discussed.
Evidence-Based Education Policies: Transforming Educational Practice and Research
Authors: Slavin Robert E.
Published: June 2007

At the dawn of the 21st century, educational research is finally entering the 20th century. The use of randomized experiments that transformed medicine, agriculture, and technology in the 20th century is now beginning to affect educational policy. This article discusses the promise and pitfalls of randomized and rigorously matched experiments as a basis for policy and practice in education. It concludes that a focus on rigorous experiments evaluating replicable programs and practices is essential to build confidence in educational research among policymakers and educators. However, new funding is needed for such experiments and there is still a need for correlational, descriptive, and other disciplined inquiry in education. Our children deserve the best educational programs, based on the most rigorous evidence we can provide.
Scientific Culture and Educational Research
Authors: Feuer Michael J , Towne Lisa , Shavelson Richard J
Published: June 2007

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 requires federal grantees to use their funds on evidence-based strategies. The law includes definitions of research quality, which are also featured prominently in the administration’s strategic plan and in draft language for the re-authorization of the U.S. Office of Educational Research and Improvement. These initiatives pose a rare opportunity and formidable challenge to the field: What are the most effective means of stimulating more and better scientific educational research? In this article, which draws on a recently released National Research Council report, the authors argue that the primary emphasis should be on nurturing and reinforcing a scientific culture of educational research. Although the article focuses on scientific research as an important form of educational scholarship, the call for building a stronger sense of research community applies broadly. Specifically, the authors argue that the development of a scientific culture rests with individual researchers, supported by leadership in their professional associations and a federal educational research agency.
Culturally Sensitive Research Approaches: An African-American Perspective
Authors: Tillman Linda C.
Published: June 2007

This article contributes to discussions about culturally sensitive research approaches in qualitative research. The author argues that the use of culturally sensitive research approaches in research focusing on African Americans can use the cultural knowledge and experiences of researchers and their participants in the design of the research as well as in the collection and interpretation of data. The author presents a rationale for the use of culturally sensitive research approaches for African Americans, a theoretical framework for culturally sensitive research approaches, and a discussion of culturally sensitive research in practice. This article concludes by discussing some implications for teaching and practice in educational research.
Design-Based Research: An Emerging Paradigm for Educational Inquiry
Authors:   The Design-Based Research Collective
Published: June 2007

The authors argue that design-based research, which blends empirical educational research with the theory-driven design of learning environments, is an important methodology for understanding how, when, and why educational innovations work in practice. Design-based researchers’ innovations embody specific theoretical claims about teaching and learning, and help us understand the relationships among educational theory, designed artifact, and practice. Design is central in efforts to foster learning, create usable knowledge, and advance theories of learning and teaching in complex settings. Design-based research also may contribute to the growth of human capacity for subsequent educational reform.
Design Experiments and Laboratory Approaches to Learning: Steps Toward Collaborative Exchange
Authors: McCandliss Bruce D. , Kalchman Mindy , Bryant Peter
Published: June 2007

This contribution explores how the emerging goals, approaches, and methodologies of design experiments might be productively combined with methods of inquiry common in more traditional laboratory science and considers the potential benefits of such a dialectic. The authors hope to promote a constructive dialogue to help formulate an infrastructure for the science of education that synthesizes theoretical insights supported by a wide array of investigational methodologies (Posner & McCandliss, 1993).
Reading Erasures and Making the Familiar Strange: Defamiliarizing Methods for Research in Formerly Colonized and Historically Oppressed Communities
Authors: Kaomea Julie
Published: June 2007

In this article the author uses an example from a Hawaiian education program in postcolonial Hawai‘i to argue that educational investigations into the colonialist and oppressive tendencies of schooling, in Hawai‘i and elsewhere, should employ defamiliarizing analytic tools borrowed from literary and critical theory to peel back familiar, dominant appearances and expose previously silenced and potentially disturbing accounts of the oppressive conditions in our schools. With the use of these defamiliarizing tools we see that within the context of historically oppressed and traditionally marginalized communities, seemingly benign or progressive instructional efforts can have unanticipated, counterproductive effects. Moreover, we find that even the most well-intentioned teachers and administrators can unwittingly be complicit in the operation and perpetuation of oppressive hegemonic dynamics.
The Craft, Practice, and Possibility of Poetry in Educational Research
Authors: Cahnmann Melisa
Published: June 2007

Developing a poetic voice prepares scholars to discover and communicate findings in multidimensional, penetrating, and more accessible ways. The author explores the craft, practice, and possibility for a poetic approach to inquiry among teaching and learning communities and encourages all researchers, especially those using qualitative methodologies, to consider what poets do and learn how to incorporate rhythm, form, metaphor, and other poetic techniques to enhance their work. Examples are presented of poetic techniques from research. The author discusses the use of poetry as a means for educational scholarship to impact the arts, influence wider audiences, and improve teacher and graduate student education.
Ethnic and Academic Identities: A Cultural Practice Perspective on Emerging Tensions and Their Management in the Lives of Minority Students
Authors: Nasir Na’ilah Suad , Saxe Geoffrey B.
Published: June 2007

Youth from minority groups often manage a tension between ethnic and academic identities as they are positioned and position themselves in relation to cultural practices in school and out. We argue that a framework involving three strands of analysis is necessary to understand these emerging tensions and their management in the lives of minority youth. The strands include analyses of shifts in (a) positioning that take form in face-to-face interactions, (b) positioning over developmental time, and (c) the cultural capital associated with practices themselves over the social histories of communities. We point to the importance of multimethod approaches to pursue such analyses.
Cultural Ways of Learning: Individual Traits or Repertoires of Practice
Authors: Gutiérrez Kris D. , Rogoff Barbara
Published: June 2007

This article addresses a challenge faced by those who study cultural variation in approaches to learning: how to characterize regularities of individuals’ approaches according to their cultural background. We argue against the common approach of assuming that regularities are static, and that general traits of individuals are attributable categorically to ethnic group membership. We suggest that a cultural-historical approach can be used to help move beyond this assumption by focusing researchers’ and practitioners’ attention on variations in individuals’ and groups’ histories of engagement in cultural practices because the variations reside not as traits of individuals or collections of individuals, but as proclivities of people with certain histories of engagement with specific cultural activities. Thus, individuals’ and groups’ experience in activities—not their traits—becomes the focus. Also, we note that cultural-historical work needs to devote more attention to researching regularities in the variations among cultural communities in order to bring these ideas to fruition.
Situating Teachers’ Instructional Practices in the Institutional Setting of the School and District
Authors: Cobb Paul , McClain Kay , de Silva Lamberg Teruni , Dean Chrystal
Published: June 2007

In this article, we describe an analytic approach for situating teachers’ instructional practices within the institutional settings of the schools and school districts in which they work. In doing so, we draw on an ongoing collaboration with a group of teachers in an urban school district to illustrate both the approach and its usefulness in guiding the development of analyses that feedback to inform such collaborations. The approach involves delineating communities of practice within a school or district and analyzing three types of interconnections between them that are based on boundary encounters, brokers, and boundary objects.
Creative Teaching: Collaborative Discussion as Disciplined Improvisation
Authors: Sawyer R. Keith
Published: June 2007

Teaching has often been thought of as a creative performance. Although comparisons with performance were originally intended to emphasize teacher creativity, they have become associated instead with contemporary reform efforts toward scripted instruction that deny the creativity of teachers. Scripted instruction is opposed to constructivist, inquiry-based, and dialogic teaching methods that emphasize classroom collaboration. To provide insight into these methods, the “teaching as performance” metaphor must be modified: Teaching is improvisational performance. Conceiving of teaching as improvisation highlights the collaborative and emergent nature of effective classroom practice, helps us to understand how curriculum materials relate to classroom practice, and shows why teaching is a creative art.
Crafting Coherence: How Schools Strategically Manage Multiple, External Demands
Authors: Honig Meredith I. , Hatch Thomas C.
Published: June 2007

“Policy coherence” is an often cited but seldom achieved education policy goal. We argue that addressing this policy-practice gap requires a reconceptualization of coherence not as the objective alignment of external requirements but as a dynamic process. This article elaborates this re-conceptualization using theories of institutional and organizational change and empirical illustrations from literature on school reform and education policy implementation. We define coherence as a process, which involves schools and school district central offices working together to craft or continually negotiate the fit between external demands and schools’ own goals and strategies. Crafting coherence includes: schools setting school-wide goals and strategies that have particular features; schools using those goals and strategies to decide whether to bridge themselves to or buffer themselves from external demands; and school district central offices supporting these school-level processes. This definition suggests new directions for policy research and practice.
Mapping the Process: An Exemplar of Process and Challenge in Grounded Theory Analysis
Authors: Beth Harry  , Sturges Keith M. , Klingner Janette K.
Published: June 2007

This article responds to recent calls for greater clarity and transparency regarding methods in qualitative research. On the basis of a 3-year ethnographic study of the overrepresentation of minorities in special education, the authors address key tenets of grounded theory and attempt to reconcile some of the methodological challenges inherent in naturalistic inquiry. They discuss theoretical considerations and use a visual model to illustrate how they applied grounded theory to this complex and sensitive topic. Emphasizing the social nature of decision making in special education, the authors point to the appropriateness of qualitative methods to the investigation of such issues.
Designing Educative Curriculum Materials to Promote Teacher Learning
Authors: Davis Elizabeth A. , Krajcik Joseph S.
Published: June 2007

Curriculum materials for Grades K–12 that are intended to promote teacher learning in addition to student learning have come to be called educative curriculum materials. How can K–12 curriculum materials be designed to best promote teacher learning? What might teacher learning with educative curriculum materials look like? The authors present a set of design heuristics for educative curriculum materials to further the principled design of these materials. They build from ideas about teacher learning and organize the heuristics around important parts of a teacher’s knowledge base: subject matter knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge for topics, and pedagogical content knowledge for disciplinary practices. These heuristics provide a context for a theoretically oriented discussion of how features of educative curriculum materials may promote teacher learning, by serving as cognitive tools that are situated in teachers’ practice. The authors explore challenges in the design of educative curriculum materials, such as the tension between providing guidance and choice.
Inquiry, Imagination, and the Search for a Deep Politic
Authors: Gitlin Andrew
Published: June 2007

In this article, the author recommends that we consider how inquiry can facilitate the search for a deep politic. Using an epistemology that shifts between education and aesthetics, the search for a deep politic is based on our human potential to interrogate and (re)imagine everyday politics. By doing so, the author argues, it is possible to see anew and move beyond the status quo to the “not yet” without being completely immersed in the normative traditions of the present and past. Linking our ability to “see” everyday politics with our human ability to imagine and create facilitates a process of change that sits uneasily with the categories, structures, and relationships that tie us to the current constructions of our life-worlds.
Self-Care and the Qualitative Researcher: When Collecting Data Can Break Your Heart
Authors: Rager Kathleen B
Published: June 2007

Conducting qualitative research on topics that are emotionally laden can have a powerful impact on the researcher. Recent literature addresses the essential nature of the emotional connection that must be part of the qualitative research process. However, for the most part, it neglects the issue of self-care strategies for the researcher that are appropriate under these circumstances. Based on the author’s experience in researching the self-directed learning of breast cancer patients and on the limited literature that is available, this article addresses these important topics and calls for increased awareness of these issues and their significance in the preparation of novice researchers.
Scholars Before Researchers: On the Centrality of the Dissertation Literature Review in Research Preparation
Authors: Boote David N. , Beile Penny
Published: June 2007

A thorough, sophisticated literature review is the foundation and inspiration for substantial, useful research. The complex nature of education research demands such thorough, sophisticated reviews. Although doctoral education is a key means for improving education research, the literature has given short shrift to the dissertation literature review. This article suggests criteria to evaluate the quality of dissertation literature reviews and reports a study that examined dissertations at three universities. Acquiring the skills and knowledge required to be education scholars, able to analyze and synthesize the research in a field of specialization, should be the focal, integrative activity of predissertation doctoral education. Such scholarship is a prerequisite for increased methodological sophistication and for improving the usefulness of education research.
What Is “Good” Education Research?
Authors: Hostetler Karl
Published: June 2007

The question of what counts as good education research has received a great deal of attention, but too often it is conceived principally as a methodological question rather than an ethical one. Good education research is a matter not only of sound procedures but also of beneficial aims and results; our ultimate aim as researchers and educators is to serve people’s well-being. For their research to be deemed good in a strong sense, education researchers must be able to articulate some sound connection between their work and a robust and justifiable conception of human well-being. There is a good deal of history and convention against such a conception of researchers’ work. We need to consider the conditions needed if that conception is to be realized. Among the conditions is a concerted and cooperative endeavor for moral education among researchers and the people with whom they work—a context where questions of well-being are foregrounded, welcomed, and vigorously debated.
College Access, K-12 Concentrated Disadvantage, and the Next 25 Years of Education Research
Authors: Yun John T , Moreno José F.
Published: June 2007

Race-inclusive admissions policies are important tools for attaining equitable access to selective colleges and universities. However, access to such institutions does not begin at the point of admissions. Rather, it depends on an interaction between the K-12 system and university admissions policies that may either mitigate inequalities or propagate them. Using data from California, we use cluster analysis as a starting point to explore how disadvantage can be concentrated in our K-12 system and how that disadvantage can further compound racial/ethnic disparities in college access
How Should Research Contribute to Instructional Improvement? The Case of Lesson Study
Authors: Lewis Catherine , Perry Rebecca , Murata Aki
Published: June 2007

Lesson study, a Japanese form of professional development that centers on collaborative study of live classroom lessons, has spread rapidly in the United States since 1999. Drawing on examples of Japanese and U.S. lesson study, we propose that three types of research are needed if lesson study is to avoid the fate of so many other once-promising reforms that were discarded before being fully understood or well implemented. The proposed research includes development of a descriptive knowledge base; explication of the innovation’s mechanism; and iterative cycles of improvement research. We identify six changes in the structure and norms of educational research that would enhance the field’s capacity to study emerging innovations such as lesson study. These changes include rethinking the routes from educational research to educational improvement and recognizing a “local proof route”; building research methods and norms that will better enable us to learn from innovation practitioners; and increasing our capacity to learn across cultural boundaries.
The Adequacy of Tools for Assessing Reading Competence: A Framework and Review
Authors: Kame’enui Edward J. , Fuchs Lynn , Francis David J. , Good Roland , O’Connor Rollanda E. , Simmons Deborah C. , Tindal Gerald , Torgesen Joseph K.
Published: June 2007

Assessment of student performance is critical for developing effective instructional policy and designing programs responsive to individual students’ needs. To gauge the adequacy of available assessment tools for achieving these ends, the Reading First Assessment Committee (RFAC) developed criteria for evaluating the adequacy of reading measures for use in kindergarten through Grade 3 and applied those criteria to a sample of prominently used assessments ( Kame’enui et al., 2002 ). The authors describe the RFAC’s framework, outline its process for judging the technical merits of reading measures, and comment on the current state of assessment tools available to practitioners for supporting effective reading instruction in the primary grades.
Race, Class, and Disproportionality: Reevaluating the Relationship Between Poverty and Special Education Placement
Authors: O’Connor Carla , Fernandez Sonia DeLuca
Published: June 2007

This article analyzes how a recent National Research Council report (2002) defined the impact of poverty in explaining the overrepresentation of minority students in special education. Echoing the perspective of mainstream special education literature, the report offered a latent theory of compromised development which indicated that minority students are more likely to be poor and that “being” poor heightens their exposure to risk factors that compromise human development and increase the need for special services. We elucidate how this theory oversimplifies the concept of “development” and consequently under-analyzes how the culture and organization of schools situates minority youths as academically and behaviorally deficient and places them at risk for special education placement.
Disability Justifies Exclusion of Minority Students: A Critical History Grounded in Disability Studies
Authors: Reid D. Kim , Knight Michelle G.
Published: June 2007

From a disability studies (DS) perspective, the authors analyze how the historical conflation of disability with other identity factors and the ideology of normalcy contribute to the disproportionality problem in K–12 special education. They argue that this conflation and ideology make labeling and segregated education seem natural and legitimate for students carrying the high-incidence, legally defined labels Learning Disabled (LD), Mentally Retarded (MR), and Emotionally Disturbed (ED). The authors then apply their insights to the scant literature on college access for students labeled LD. Although it appears that disabled students are succeeding at increasing rates, the overall picture obscures the continued effects of the historical legacy embedded in the intersections of race, class, gender, and disability for K–16 students
Securing the Right to Learn: Policy and Practice for Powerful Teaching and Learning
Authors: Darling-Hammond Linda
Published: June 2007

America’s schools are among the most unequal in the industrialized world in terms of both inputs and outcomes. Inequalities in spending, class sizes, textbooks, computers, facilities, curriculum offerings, and access to qualified teachers contribute to disparate achievement by race and class, which increasingly feeds the “school-to-prison pipeline”—a function of many young people’s lack of adequate skills for joining the labor market. This creates an enormous drain on national resources, which, in turn, reduces the capacity to invest in education, social services, and employment. To reverse this situation, the nation must create a coherent system that can provide well-trained teachers in all communities so that all children can be skillfully taught and ultimately successful in a knowledge-based economy. This article describes the kind of preparation and policy system needed to achieve this goal.
Public Discourses in Schools: Purposes, Problems, Possibilities
Authors: Parker Walter C.
Published: June 2007

Classroom discussion can play an important role in the formation of citizens, and in more ways than one. Yet recitation persists as the discursive norm in classrooms, and the literature on discussion lacks clarity as to purpose. This article contributes a delineation of two purposes—interpretation (enlightenment) and decision making (engagement)—and argues that they are elemental to both discussion pedagogy and citizen formation. As practices, they upend recitation and offer an occasion for liberal education, including opening oneself to difference. The author aims to show that classroom discussion is useful both pedagogically and politically when the two purposes are articulated in a diverse school setting, and that critics risk their own interests when they dismiss the possibilities of discussion.