This study aims to examine and demonstrate practices, elements and techniques employed by the action research method. It examines the use of films in sociology instruction in college, and the influence of films on the development of students' understanding of human nature. Based on the professional experience of the authors films utilize and…

The author experienced the introduction of the Internet as a high school student. Reflecting on that experience, he now realizes that he did not understand the possibilities offered by chat rooms, instant messaging, and other Internet-based communication tools to increase sociopolitical connectedness. As the teacher of an eleventh grade social…

This article explores how four male vehicle engineering students at an upper secondary school in Sweden engage in literature discussion. The study combines a Conversation Analysis (CA) approach with a reception theory perspective and shows that the boys use direct reported speech (DRS) in their interaction as a technique to handle intimate and…

This research report examines how two groups of bilingual algebra students made connections among representations while solving a non-routine generalization problem. Using a socio-cultural orientation to mathematics learning, together with a semiotic lens on students' joint mathematical activity, this report details the type of connections among…

This study investigates students' work on analyzing a literary text, a cartoon strip, with focus on their use of instructional, analytical concepts. Excerpts from a group conversation and from individually written texts are analyzed from a sociocultural, dialogical perspective. The analysis of the conversation shows how such concepts help the…

A critical review of research to date suggests a need to explore the development of graduate student research capacity from the standpoint of graduate students. Six members of an interdisciplinary graduate student colloquium at the Centre for Youth and Society (Victoria, Canada) offer their perspective. Our research involved four phases, each…

Grounded theory is used to examine the role and application of both educator-led and student-led forums within a virtual learning environment (VLE) of a higher education institution (HEI). The study reports experiences and perceptions of academics in two faculties (business and technology) in the HEI who use both asynchronous VLE forums and social…

This article analyses the relationships between different notions of education quality and policies on primary and secondary schools implemented in Argentina during the last two decades. The authors focus on three moments: (1) the emergence of the discussion about quality (at the end of the 1980s) in Latin America and in Argentina; (2) the…

The aim of this study was to describe, reflect upon, and create a deeper understanding of aspects relevant for promoting a positive school environment from a student perspective. The data was analyzed by using an inductive phenomenological method and based on written responses from 200 Swedish students from grades 5-9. The results indicated that…

Every February, schools celebrate Black History Month and teachers teach the grand narrative of famous African Americans such as Martin Luther King, Jr. While the stories communicate bravery, they are also about racism and violence. Here, through narrative inquiry, a teacher deconstructs Black History Month, inviting student responses to stories…

This self-study describes the development and use in a preservice literacy course of the first author's narrative of her own schooling. The introduction to that narrative is included in this paper. The full text of the narrative also describes the impact of school readiness, resource placement, transience, poverty, and teachers' responses and…

This study investigated associations between teacher-student interaction and students' persistence to complete written electron configurations in a high school chemistry classroom. Analyses of the interactions were guided with an Expectancy-Value framework to identify the discourse strategies used by the teacher to build engagement in a classroom…

This study presents three case studies of students' participation patterns in an online discussion to address the gap in our current understanding of how "individuals" experience asynchronous learning environments. Cases were constructed via microanalysis of log-file data, post contents, and the evolving discussion structure. The first student was…

This article describes an innovative collaboration between graduate students and a faculty member to co-design and co-teach a graduate-level workshop-style qualitative methods course. The goal of co-designing and co-teaching the course was to involve advanced graduate students in all aspects of designing a syllabus and leading class discussions in…

There has been a steady growth of the K-12 student population taking courses online. This study examined reasons for students to choose a public online charter school program and their perceptions of online discussion. A survey was sent to 1,500 students newly enrolled in a statewide public online charter school program. From those who responded,…