This paper emerges from a current research project that examines the relationship between contemporary English rurality and notions of identity and belonging. While this is primarily a methodological narrative we argue that this narrative speaks to an analysis of current rural relations. The paper concerns itself with two key methodological issues…

The article examines whether the increase in international contacts among university researchers is an impact of a general globalisation trend, or whether it is an effect of policy initiatives on national and supranational levels such as EU research programmes. The present study demonstrates that the sheer volume of international contacts among…

Many psychological tests have arbitrary metrics but are appropriate for testing psychological theories. Metric arbitrariness is a concern, however, when researchers wish to draw inferences about the true, absolute standing of a group or individual on the latent psychological dimension being measured. The authors illustrate this in the context of 2…

I use this paper to reexamine my role as a White researcher on a multiracial research team. I reanalyze data I collected during an evaluation project to reveal how I avoided seeing race in the schools I visited and how I dodged discussions of race with members of those school communities. By analyzing my own discursive practice, I introduce a…

Little is known about researchers' understanding of confidence intervals (CIs) and standard error (SE) bars. Authors of journal articles in psychology, behavioral neuroscience, and medicine were invited to visit a Web site where they adjusted a figure until they judged 2 means, with error bars, to be just statistically significantly different (p…

This report synthesizes the discussion that took place in a Conference on Qualitative Classroom Research ("What in the world happens in classrooms?" ), organized by the authors and held in Oaxtepec, Mexico in May 2002. The primary aim was to visualize possible interconnections among the various disciplines represented by the 35 scholars who were…

The general goal of research into LGBT issues among youth is, of course, to improve the situation of young people. Research on its own cannot attain such an objective; it is a tool in a chain of interventions. Implementation of the recommendations of research is essential for effective use of research. But, implementation is often difficult. To…

The Mass-Observation Archive at the University of Sussex sends regular "directives" to its panel of volunteer correspondents around the UK asking them to reflect on various issues relating to the day-to-day lives of ordinary people. Two directives from the 1980s and 1990s relate to libraries, books and reading habits. These sets of…

In the past, evaluation of teacher performance often focused on generic behaviors related to common instructional strategies (Medley, Coker, & Soar, 1984). More recently, educational researchers and test developers have focused more on teachers' subject matter knowledge as tested through tools like the Praxis and California's Single Subject…

How beginning teachers learn to teach has been the focus of a substantial amount of research. The process is complex, and a number of theories and models have been put forward. For example, Fuller and Bown's (1975) well-known classification of beginning teachers' concerns into self, task and impact (and the sequential nature of these categories)…

There is a great deal of energy going into encouraging teachers to carry out research. This article, arising from interviews with teachers in four contrasting schools, explores three related questions enquiring into what teachers think about research; how they feel about doing research and, most importantly perhaps, why they choose to continue to…

This study investigated the psychological assessment literature to determine what applied researchers are using and reporting from confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) studies for evidence of construct validation. One hundred and one articles published in four major psychological assessment journals between 1990 and 2002 were systematically…

Functional behavioral assessment (FBA) has been suggested for facilitating the development and effectiveness of behavior intervention plans. In this study, the researchers examined whether behavior intervention plans based on FBA information (function-based) were more effective than behavior intervention plans not based on FBA information…

It is suggested that the prevailing form of technology adoption and stabilization through the "handing-off" of technologies across multiple, discontinuous worlds relies on articulation work that is largely invisible. In this article, I discuss the possibilities of opening the black box, that is, finding out how the "invisible"…

This article uses data collected from a class of eight to nine year olds to show the specific ways children are defining their gendered positions within the context of their same sex friendship groups. Children's subjectivities are described as both actively formed and also positioned within the surrounding (gendered) discourses. This article will…