Purpose: Phenomenology has a long tradition as a qualitative research method in the social and health sciences. The application of phenomenological methods to understand lived experiences and subjectivities offers researchers a rich tapestry of methodological approaches, often however, the availability of these methods to researchers is tempered…

Scholarship on multimethod case selection in the social sciences has developed rapidly in recent years, but many possibilities remain unexplored. This essay introduces an attractive and advantageous new alternative, involving the selection of extreme cases on the treatment variable, net of the statistical influence of the set of known control…

This article develops a framework for the causal analysis of critical events in case study research. A critical event is defined as a contingent event that is causally important for an outcome in a specific case. Using set-theoretic analysis, this article offers definitions and measurement tools for the study of contingency and causal importance…

Moving Beyond the Ordinal Methodological Controversy: A Systematic Review (Manuscript 1): Ordinal outcome data is a common byproduct of education research. Yet more than seventy-five years after the development of Stevens' original measurement framework, the permissibility of select analytic techniques to ordinal outcome data remains a topic of…

Due to the internationalisation of higher education, much research has been focused on internationalising the curriculum, while little is known about internationalising research supervision. Research supervision is very pertinent as far as students' acquisition of sustainable research skills is concerned. This study examined the perceptions of…

This study explores how mobile and immobile academics enact research collaborations in Centres of Excellence (CoEs) in the Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH). Modelled on Big Sciences and underpinned by human capital assumptions, CoEs aim to foster both local and international collaborations, driven by academic mobilities. Based on critical…

Globally, scholarships for international higher education play a critical role in human capital development. While substantial research has documented the benefits such scholarships provide for individuals, their impact on the creation of pathways for social change remains under-researched. This paper bridges this gap by examining the extent to…

How do researchers of cognitive development work to make sure that our field evolves so that our contribution to humanity is emancipatory? We can take inspiration from researchers near and far. Inspiration may be found in other areas of psychological research (social, cultural, etc.) and other social sciences (public health, sociology, etc.).…

A previous meta-analysis found that active learning has a positive impact on learning achievements for college students in STEM fields of study. However, no similar meta-analyses have been conducted in the humanities and social sciences. Because major dissimilarities may exist between different fields or domain of knowledge, there can be issues…

Outside of a specialist literature, the study of violence occupies a marginal position within comparative and international education scholarship. A key contributing factor is the absence of a holistic conceptual framework that can capture the nature, extent and causes of violence in education. The article proposes such a framework, by updating…

This paper reflects critically upon how the 'mobilities turn' in the social sciences, and its subsequent contribution towards 'policy mobilities', offers theoretical and methodological resources that can be usefully harnessed in education policy sociology. Just as there are new ways in which policy is being made and moved, there are equally new…

This article responds to the work by Marginson and Yang in this special issue from an epistemological lens. It focuses on how to observe China and Chinese education. After offering an overall review of contemporary social sciences, it then reminds us of the need for overcoming dichotomous mode of thinking in social research in the context of…

Research at the intersection of social science and genomics, 'sociogenomics', is transforming our understanding of the interplay between genomics, individual outcomes and society. It has interesting and maybe unexpected implications for education research and policy. Here we review the growing sociogenomics literature and discuss its implications…

International publications in social sciences by scholars based in mainland China have been increasing in volume, but little is known about the characteristics of China's contribution. This study examines the characteristics and patterns of international publications by Chinese scholars in higher education research. Data from three…

The scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) defines itself as an inclusive field of study, and scholars have long lauded its ability to engage academics from each and every discipline. Yet SoTL's research culture has long been dominated by a narrow conception of social science. As a result, the lived experience of scholars from other…