This analysis of the papers in the special section on the intersection of identity development and peer relationship processes calls attention to conceptual contribution this collection of papers makes to the literature on identity development. Together these ten papers build on strong theoretical foundations in identity development, which posit…

Since the 1950s, the critical incident technique (CIT) has aided researchers in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of qualitative data. In the student affairs literature only a very small number of CIT studies exist. Using the two most recent publications as examples, this article provides a detailed overview of the CIT, highlights its…

Within the emerging field of research on education for sustainability (EfS), case studies are an important if not the predominant research approach, although often criticised for its lack of internal and external validity and a tendency to draw conclusions with insufficient rigour. While, basic concerns have been expressed and discussed in an…

This study examines the potential of visual sociology to expand our knowledge of higher education through the use of visual data sources and methods of analysis. Photographs and archival material form the basis of the study. The images were analyzed as being part of the initiation and fulfillment stages of the social construction of collective…

In this commentary, the authors contend that Persson's (2012a) paper, Cultural Variation and Dominance in a Globalised Knowledge-Economy: Towards a Culture-Sensitive Research Paradigm in the Science of Giftedness, lacks conciseness in defining the connections between the significance of cultural dominance and the definition of giftedness. However,…

Many young people in the UK and across the world, where austerity measures are biting deep, find themselves at a time of crisis and uncertainty in their lives. The assumptions previously held of clear and straightforward career paths are being challenged and "career" has come to mean more than simply "work" or…

Research on children, young people and religion is becoming more prevalent following an increased interest in this traditionally under-researched area. However, little discussion has taken place to date on the appropriateness of past frameworks for making sense of children's religious lives. This article calls attention to the issue of religious…

Research in the early years places increasing importance on participatory methods to engage children. The playback of video-recording to stimulate conversation is a research method that enables children's accounts to be heard and attends to a participatory view. During video-stimulated sessions, participants watch an extract of video-recording of…

This paper focuses on the data analysis stage of phenomenographic research, elucidating what is involved in terms of both commonality and variation in accepted practice. The analysis stage of phenomenographic research is often not well understood. This paper helps to clarify the process, initially by collecting together in one location the more…

Applied researchers often find themselves making statistical inferences in settings that would seem to require multiple comparisons adjustments. We challenge the Type I error paradigm that underlies these corrections. Moreover we posit that the problem of multiple comparisons can disappear entirely when viewed from a hierarchical Bayesian…

This article examines the potential of practitioner research to contribute to understandings of critical and transformative literacy theories. Drawing upon the work of intellectual historian Dominick LaCapra (2004), we investigate how practitioner research can reconcile theories proliferated from universities with those generated by practitioners,…

The epistemic interview is a conversational practice, which aims to generate knowledge by subjecting respondents' beliefs to dialectical tests of reasons. Developed by Svend Brinkmann, this model draws inspiration from Socratic dialogues where the interviewer asks confronting questions to press respondents to articulate the normative bases of…

There is a germane relationship between qualitative and quantitative approaches to social science research. The relationship is empirically and theoretically demonstrated by poverty researchers. The study of poverty, as argued in this article, is a study of both numbers and contextualities. This article provides a general overview of qualitative…

World culture theory seeks to explain an apparent convergence of education through a neoinstitutionalist lens, seeing global rationalization in education as driven by the logic of science and the myth of progress. While critics have challenged these assumptions by focusing on local manifestations of world-level tendencies, such critique is…

This essay explores the purposes of Christian youth work. It responds to Collins-Mayo et al.'s contention that youth work is an ineffective medium for faith transmission and building faith communities and to their affirmation of the church's role in this. The analysis is based on research with young people aged between early teens and early 20s,…