Recent debates about qualitative methods have discussed the relative limitations and contributions of interviews in comparison to surveys and participant observation. These discussions have rarely considered how ethnographers themselves use interviews as part of their work. We suggest that Lizardo's discussion of three modes of culture…

Increasingly, the broader public, media and policymakers are looking to qualitative research to provide answers to our most pressing social questions. While an exciting and perhaps overdue moment for qualitative researchers, it is also a time when the method is coming under increasing scrutiny for a lack of reliability and transparency. The…

This article reports on a conversation between users of two research methods, biographical interviews and imagined futures essay writing. A dialogue form is used to discuss these methods and their potential to be combined. The value of comparing research methods is discussed, and then the two methods are described and points of connection and…

We might call this decade the era of early childhood. In the US, federal and state governments invest in the creation of public pre-kindergarten (preK) programs and create standards that articulate goals for practice and benchmarks that can be used to evaluate success. How have these trends provided a context for the evolution of preK curriculum?…

Children often answer questions when they do not have the requisite knowledge or when they do not understand them. We examined whether "ground rules" instruction--to say "I don't know," to tell the truth, and to correct the interviewer when necessary--assisted children in applying those rules during an interview about a past…

The aim of this article is to present a comparison between two academic libraries: Indiana University Libraries in the United States and the Library of Pope John Paul II State School of Higher Education in Biala Podlaska, Poland. This comparison is based on data that each of these libraries published in statistical reports. Much of the information…

Despite the widespread adoption of accreditation processes and the belief in their effectiveness for improving educational quality, the search for good accreditation practices remains a critical issue. This article recounts one university's experiences when simultaneously undergoing the accreditation processes of both the Middle States Commission…

Social media technologies were introduced among the modern society and are part of its routine in many ways--knowledge acquisition and sharing, interpersonal relationships, media diffusion--sometimes complementing and even substituting tools that were specifically designed for similar activities. This research compares social media sites and…

Scores on essay-based assessments that are part of standardized admissions tests are typically given relatively little weight in admissions decisions compared to the weight given to scores from multiple-choice assessments. Evidence is presented to suggest that more weight should be given to these assessments. The reliability of the writing scores…

Findings on the reliability and cost-effectiveness of the use of cellular phones vis-à-vis face-to-face interviews in investigating health behaviors and conditions are presented for a national epidemiological sample from Lebanon. Using self-reported responses on identical questions, percentage agreement, ? statistics, and McNemar's test were used…

The concept of citizenship is mainly viewed as a Western construct. This article argues an understanding of citizenship education in China not only simply as a grounding in schooling and procedural knowledge of systems of Chinese government but, more broadly, whether in schools or society, whether in China or overseas, that develops dispositions,…

Australia has declared its ambition to be within the "top five" in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) by 2025. So serious is it about this ambition, that the Australian Government has incorporated it into the "Australian Education Act, 2013". Given this focus on PISA results and rankings, we go beyond…

The present article compares and contrasts linguistic findings from longitudinal studies of low-income Americans derived from evidence of recorded family speech interactions. Hart and Risley (1995) employed research assistants who spent 1 hour per month observing language usage among families from different socioeconomic backgrounds in their homes…

This exploratory qualitative study examines the perceptions of ten Haitian parents regarding their child with a disability, the education the child was receiving, their interaction with the school system, and how the disability has affected their relationship with their child and their involvement with the school. Data were obtained from…

Key findings from a new study highlight how Learning Forward's long-standing position on professional learning correlates with practices in high-performing systems in Singapore, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and British Columbia. The purpose of this article is to share key findings from the study so that educators might apply them to strengthening…