Drawing on social justice methodologies and cultural studies scholarship, Key Theoretical Frameworks offers new curricular and pedagogical approaches to teaching technical communication. Including original essays by emerging and established scholars, the volume educates students, teachers, and practitioners on identifying and assessing issues of social justice and globalization. The collection provides a valuable resource for teachers new to translating social justice theories to the classroom by presenting concrete examples related to technical communication. Each contribution adopts a particular theoretical approach, explains the theory, situates it within disciplinary scholarship, contextualizes the approach from the author’s experience, and offers additional teaching applications. The first volume of its kind, Key Theoretical Frameworks links the theoretical with the pedagogical in order to articulate, use, and assess social justice frameworks for designing and teaching courses in technical communication. Contributors: Godwin Y. Agboka, Matthew Cox, Marcos Del Hierro, Jessica Edwards, Erin A. Frost, Elise Verzosa Hurley, Natasha N. Jones, Cruz Medina, Marie E. Moeller, Kristen R. Moore, Donnie Johnson Sackey, Gerald Savage, J. Blake Scott, Barbi Smyser-Fauble, Kenneth Walker, Rebecca Walton

Theoretical Frameworks in College Student Research was written to offer those who engage in college student research a framework, tool, or guide for understanding the role that theory plays in research. Each of the seven chapters in the volume are organized around five major questions which address the essence of theory, central tenants and concepts of prevailing theories, examples of how the author and others have used the theory in previous research, as well as insights for future research. An impressive set of references points to the expansive literature that informs this new volume.

Designed for novice as well as more experienced researchers, Reason & Rigor by Sharon M. Ravitch and Matthew Riggan presents conceptual frameworks as a mechanism for aligning literature review, research design, and methodology. The book explores the conceptual framework—defined as both a process and a product—that helps to direct and ground researchers as they work through common research challenges. Focusing on published studies on a range of topics and employing both quantitative and qualitative methods, the updated Second Edition features two new chapters and clearly communicates the processes of developing and defining conceptual frameworks.

The Second Edition of Theoretical Frameworks in Qualitative Research brings together some of today’s leading qualitative researchers to discuss the frameworks behind their published qualitative studies. They share how they found and chose a theoretical framework, from what discipline the framework was drawn, what the framework posits, and how it influenced their study. Both novice and experienced qualitative researchers are able to learn first-hand from various contributors as they reflect on the process and decisions involved in completing their study. The book also provides background for beginning researchers about the nature of theoretical frameworks and their importance in qualitative research; about differences in perspective about the role of theoretical frameworks; and about how to find and use a theoretical framework.

How do we understand and explain who has access to higher education? How do we make sense of persisting and new forms of inequality? How can global, national and institutional policymakers and practitioners make higher education more inclusive? Access to Higher Education: Theoretical perspectives and contemporary challenges seeks to update thinking on these questions, combining new voices and emerging perspectives with established writers in the field. This pioneering text highlights the contribution of social theory to issues of access to education, with chapters introducing and drawing on the works of key interdisciplinary thinkers including Pierre Bourdieu, Margaret Archer, Amartya Sen and Herbert Simon. It then moves to examines how theoretical perspectives can be applied to the contemporary challenges of forging more equal access, with examples drawn from a wide range of contexts, including the UK, the US, Australia, South Africa and Japan. Global in scope, this book documents the shared nature of the access challenge in a period when higher education is growing rapidly, but inequalities continue to be stark. It concludes by proposing a new direction for research and a reassertion of the role of the researcher as a social activist for disconnected and disadvantaged groups, equipped with the thinking tools needed to move the agenda forward. Access to Higher Education is a rigorous text for the global research community, with relevance to policymakers, practitioners and postgraduate students interested in social justice and social policy. It provides those with an academic interest in access and a commitment to enhancing policy with theoretical and practical ideas for moving the access agenda forward in their institutional, regional or national contexts.

This book explicates some of the fundamental philosophical tenets underpinning key theoretical frameworks, and demonstrates how these tenets inform particular kinds of research practice in mathematics education research. We believe that a deep understanding of significant theories from the humanities and social sciences is crucial for doing high-quality research in education. For that reason, this book focuses on six key theoretical sources, unpacking their relevance and application to specific research examples. We situate these key theorists within a larger framework pertaining to the history of thought more generally, and discuss how competing theories of teaching and learning differ in terms of their philosophical assumptions. In so doing, we offer context and motivation for particular research methods, with the agenda of helping researchers reflect on why particular approaches and not others might work for them.