This article responds to Wright and Nelson's (1995) call for a "creative synthesis" of participant observation and participatory research, which may allow the limitations of both methods to be addressed. It does so by reflecting on the experience of doing long-term research both with and on young Bhutanese refugees in Nepal. Although…

In the United States, various forms of character education have become popular in both elementary and professional education. They are often criticised, however, for their reliance on Aristotle, who is said to be problematic at several points. In response to these criticisms, I argue that Aristotle's ancient account of character and its formation…

Experiential learning has been a foundational tenant of agricultural education since its inception. However, the theory of experiential education has received limited attention in the permanent agricultural education literature base. As such, this philosophical manuscript examined Kolb's experiential learning process further, and considered the…

This article relies on twelve texts published in "Distances et Savoirs." It asserts three "figures of thought" crossing our scientific disciplines: the substance, the relation, and the movement. The confrontation of these figures and these texts suggests how much "Distances et Savoirs" invites to a pluralistic…

Examining media artifacts as a learning method has received little attention in human resource development (HRD) despite it being a predominate form of information and influence in popular culture. As Giroux (2002) opines, media functions as a form of public pedagogy by offering situations and contexts through which viewers can vicariously…

As a result of inter- and intranational migrations, urban schools in early 21st-century Western nations serve more ethnoculturally diverse populations than ever before. The impact of global events resonates in these schools at the local community level. In this article I argue for the administrative fusion of local and global perspectives, a…

If educators want to discover how they can engage students as well as themselves in the 21st century, they must move beyond skills and technologies. They must explore the interconnected social media literacies of (1) attention; (2) participation; (3) cooperation; (4) network awareness; and (5) critical consumption. In this article, the author…

This article synthesizes research on social capital, school outcomes, internet use, and volunteering to argue that e-mentoring--which is commonly practiced over long distances--could become a powerful way to build greater cohesiveness in local communities. Realizing this potential will require a larger-scale and more coordinated approach to…

This urban synthesis paper encompasses the works of Drs. Joel Handler, Yeheskel Hasenfeld, Ann Winfield, John Rury, and Jean Anyon. The main purpose of this paper is to synthesize arguments contained within their books relating to the theory of power vs. oppression as it plays out within our society. This synthesizing acknowledges and elucidates…

Research syntheses are appealing because they enable decision makers to determine quickly whether policies, programs, and practices will have effects on student achievement and, if so, the magnitudes of the likely effects. Such syntheses should present objective, clear, scientifically accurate, and defensible evidence in terms that educators can…

Traditional methods for preparing systematic reviews and syntheses of effectiveness studies rely on a limited set of methodological criteria to include studies that measure and report effects too narrowly to forward the mission of evidence-based practice. This article discusses why and how the criteria for study selection, evidence screening, and…

In this article, the author talks about "Developing Early Literacy," the report of the National Early Literacy Panel. The panel, which consisted of nine experts, was convened by the National Institute for Literacy to synthesize the research on the development of literacy from birth through age 5. Over the eight years of their work, only 190…

When causal inferences are to be synthesized across multiple studies, efforts to establish the magnitude of a causal effect should be balanced by an effort to evaluate the generalizability of the effect. The evaluation of generalizability depends on two factors that are given little attention in current syntheses: construct validity and external…

This response to Slavin's article (2008) explores the issues of transparency, representation, and warranting of claims in Slavin's descriptions of the work of others and his suggestions for program evaluation syntheses. Through contrastive analyses between Slavin's representations of the program evaluation synthesis efforts of five organizations…

Historically, faculty of color have been woefully underrepresented in higher education. Since the 1980s, though, numbers for these academics have begun to increase. To bring attention to the some of the struggles that faculty of color face, the authors created a counternarrative by drawing on their collective experience to deconstruct and…