Examines how a disciplinary shift was brought about in an individual. The impetus for the shift was social and organizational, the process was undergone in a bureaucratic context, and the outcome was a scientific identity of a transdisciplinary nature, in which competencies in the social and life sciences were interwoven in daily practices. (EV)

Five focus group sessions involving 35 persons associated with Research for Better Schools had to initiate a needs assessment. Tapes and transcripts of the sessions were analyzed. Analyses support the value of the focus groups in providing input to the design of the needs assessment survey. (TJH)

Adult education researchers must become critical writers and readers of research texts. Reflexivity should be seen as a movement away from the purely personal to an awareness of the operation of language, discourse, and power in the assumptions and unconscious values of research. (SK)

Offers a pragmatic discussion of potential problems and practical solutions that arise when implementing funded research from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Describes the activities of the investigator and NIH from the time a proposal is submitted through the first year of funding. Includes a timeline for review and funding for NIH…

Considers the relationship between a physical education instructor's role as teacher and his role as potential researcher. Explains how teachers and researchers can help one another and participate in collaborative efforts. (HB)

Discusses why educational researchers need to rethink their roles, methods, texts, and contexts to bring about meaningful educational reform. In particular, researchers must rethink their audience and their relationships with that audience. (SLD)

Describes the experience of being a researcher in mathematics classrooms. Offers background-research information and describes the research context. Presents a series of episodes to stimulate reflections. Contains 12 references. (ASK)

Because a comprehensive or balanced collection of information may not be necessary or desirable, deciding why information is needed is an integral step in focusing a search strategy and information analysis. This article discusses information needs, barriers to comprehensiveness, search strategies (primary and secondary sources), and variables and…

A 2-year ethnographic study of a clubhouse for people with long-term mental illness involved club members in particpatory research. The study explored questions of what is research and who drives it. A critical perspective on the social organization of knowledge and power inequities between participants was highlighted. (SK)

Examines the concept and practice of returning linguistic favors to host research communities, the so-called "linguistic gratuity principle" (Wolfram,1993). Uses a case study format as the basis for scrutinizing researcher-community relationships. Presents research from the post-insular dialect community of Ocracoke Island in North…

Explores the nature, origins, and purposes of collaborative research in early childhood, and identifies the challenges that arise in conducting such research. Discusses how other articles in this issue illustrate diverse approaches to collaboration and provide examples of how challenges are dealt with in practice. Notes that equality between…

Discusses the basis of this volume, a survey of a panel of experts on the important components and unresolved issues in the scholarship of teaching. Also provides an overview of the volume's subsequent chapters. Includes the survey and an analysis of responses. (EV)

While debate about the meaning of hermeneutics and phenomenology for educational research continues, the notion of lived experience, and its application to reflective practice, has become a feature of much that goes by the name of phenomenological within this area. The prevalence of the lived experience model can be attributed in large part to the…

In a previous article, Phil Hodkinson argued that there are currently attempts to impose a methodological orthodoxy on educational research, one that is empiricist in character and privileges quantitative method. While agreeing with much of what he says, I take issue with key elements of his argument. I suggest that he presents too rosy a picture…

Interdisciplinary research is being promoted in many quarters as the way forward, but "research islands" still persist. Taking computer-assisted learning (CAL) within health sciences as a case in point, this paper describes a detailed study of the references to source material within papers published in general medical, specific nursing and…