This volume offers an overview of the pragmatic understanding of knowledge and the acquisition of knowledge, and its implications for the conduct of educational research. Pragmatism and Educational Research focuses primarily on the work of John Dewey, and examines the relationship between pragmatism and educational research both in relation to research methodology and to a pragmatic educational theory. Biesta and Burbules provide examples of characteristic research questions and research methods and approaches, as informed by a pragmatist outlook. Further, they argue that the major benefit of a pragmatic approach to educational research lies in the possibility of promoting intelligent and reflective action by educational practitioners.

This volume presents in a forthright and lively way, an account of the philosophical position generally identified as Postpositivistic that undergirds much of mainstream research in education and the related social sciences. The discussion throughout is informed by recent developments in philosophy of science. This book argues that, while there is much to be learned from recent critiques regarding truth in research, traditional scientific values and assumptions are not outmoded. Visit our website for sample chapters!

Acclaimed African American scholar and teacher educator Gloria Ladson-Billings examines the field of teacher education through the accomplishments and contributions of well-known African American teacher educators—Lisa Delpit, Carl Grant, Jacqueline Jordan Irvine, Geneva Gay, Cherry McGee Banks, William Tate, and Joyce King. Using in-depth interviews and storytelling, Ladson-Billings depicts deeply personal portraits of these scholars’ experiences to confront race and racism, not only theoretically, but within their everyday professional lives in “the Big House” of the academy. Ladson-Billings gives these portraits even greater resonance and meaning by pairing these teacher educators with historical figures—such as Harriet Tubman, Nat Turner, and Charlotte Forten—whose contributions to the struggle for social justice are a wellspring of hope and courage to all educators, and a tribute to African Americans whose political, scientific, and spiritual efforts made life better for us all. This compelling book is important reading for all educators who want to transform teacher education for the better. “The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education is enthused and excited about Ladson-Billings’s dynamic and provoking scholarship. Its focus on outstanding African American teacher educators is a major contribution to teacher education literature. This cutting-edge research is likely to prompt some of the best of unconventional teacher education thought.” —David G. Imig, President and CEO, American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education “In this moving and original book, Gloria Ladson-Billings offers complex insights about the politics of scholarship, the experiences of scholars of color in universities, and the larger enterprise of teaching and teacher education for social justice.” —Marilyn Cochran-Smith, Lynch School of Education, Boston College and President of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) for 2004–05.

In this first book of the series Survey Methods in Educational Research, we have brought together leading authors and scholars in the field to discuss key introductory concepts in the creation, implementation, evaluation and dissemination of survey instruments and their resultant findings. While there are other textbooks that might introduce these concepts adequately well, the authors here have focused on the pragmatic issues that inevitably arise in the development and administration process of survey instruments. Drawing from their rich experiences, the authors present these potential speed bumps or road blocks a survey researcher in education or the social sciences might encounter. Referencing their own work and practice, the authors provide valuable suggestions for dealing with these issues “your advisor never told you about.” And all of the recommendations are aligned with standard protocols and current research on best practices in the field of research methodology. This book is broken into four broad units on creating survey items and instruments, administering surveys, analyzing the data from surveys, and stories of successful administrations modeling the entire research cycle. Each chapter focuses on a different concept in the survey research process, and the authors share their approaches to addressing the issues. These topics include survey item construction, scale development, cognitive interviewing, measuring change with self-report data, translation issues with surveys administered in multiple languages, working with school and program administrators when implementing surveys, a review of current software used in survey research, the use of weights, response styles, assessing validity of results, and effectively communicating your results and findings … and much more. The intended audience of the volume will be practitioners, administrators, teachers as researchers, graduate students, social science and education researchers not experienced in survey research, and students learning program evaluation. In brief, if you are considering doing survey research, this book is meant for you.

Every educational research project has challenges and obstacles that need to be managed and overcome. This book uses real case studies employing a wide range of research methodologies and drawn from educational contexts across Europe to explore these challenges offering flexible and universal guidance that you can apply to your own research. Published in partnership with EERA, this book is: · Realistic and informed: It explores a range of perspectives on educational research, from planning to data collection to international collaboration · Challenging: It integrates a holistic and critical view on the process of educational research · Culturally aware: It covers a variety of research projects from different countries and encourages you to challenge dominant perspectives in education This is the first major English language textbook for postgraduate and postdoctoral education researchers that represents and explores the range of research traditions that exist throughout Europe and what they mean in practice.

Decolonizing Educational Research examines the ways through which coloniality manifests in contexts of knowledge and meaning making, specifically within educational research and formal schooling. Purposefully situated beyond popular deconstructionist theory and anthropocentric perspectives, the book investigates the longstanding traditions of oppression, racism, and white supremacy that are systemically reseated and reinforced by learning and social interaction. Through these meaningful explorations into the unfixed and often interrupted narratives of culture, history, place, and identity, a bold, timely, and hopeful vision emerges to conceive of how research in secondary and higher education institutions might break free of colonial genealogies and their widespread complicities.

"Educational research, methodology, and measurement: an international handbook is a unique collection of 139 articles which provides an up-to-date overview of educational research perspectives and practices throughout the world. The range and depth of treatment of articles in this handbook goes well beyond that previously assembled in other works in the field. It will be an important and necessary addition to every personal or reference library concerned with educational research, methodology, and measurement."--Page [4] of cover.