The abilities to listen reflectively and speak respectfully concerning another person's opinion, as well as to think critically about that opinion and one's own, are essential to a functioning democracy. The teaching and learning of these abilities is well incorporated into the social studies and English language arts standards that are used to…

The use of social media saturates the everyday lives of young people, offering complex, rich challenges and opportunities for cultivating their skills with and disposition toward online participatory politics in "a culturally diverse, democratic society in an interdependent world" (National Council for the Social Studies). While attempts…

Response to Intervention (RTI) is an approach that can address children's problems in school. However, research has not consistently supported positive effects of RTI. I use the dialectical method to suggest RTI researchers have not adequately focused on children's personal experiences. The effects of persistent, negative experience are observable…

This research examines the same 12 school-students making repeat visits over a three-year-period to a science museum. We used a qualitative approach, analysing video recordings of museum visit and interviews with students, focusing on the way students use their former engagement in a science museum using a retrospective view that can offer insight…

The extensive literature on research co-creation is mostly based on problems being treated as clearly defined and solvable. What is the impact on co-creation when problems are complex, with the following characteristics: difficult to delimit, contested definitions, multiple uncertainties and unresolvable unknowns, constraints on what can be done,…

The practice of communicating research findings to participants has been identified as important in the research ethics literature, but little research has examined empirically how this occurs and what research participants' views are in this regard. We interviewed 21 adults with cystic fibrosis who had previously participated in research and 2…

When student agency is amplified by the integration of modern technologies, students have great potential to solve real-world problems and learn in a deep and engaging way. And yet often schools are hesitant to provide students with true agency. Richardson looks at some powerful student projects and inventions that were possible through agency and…

How do research participants feel about having their 'ordinary' lives researched? This article focuses on how research participants manage the sharing of details emerging "out of" their ordinary lives in the context of research -- an activity which, for most, is "outside of" the ordinary. Despite two significant research turns…

The international Smart Cities and the Learning Cities movements are not often linked. However, there are learning questions at stake here. Smart city agendas are often criticised as being technocratic and instrumental, prioritising market-led solutions to urban issues. Such criticism has led to moves to place the citizen at the centre of these…

Policy makers have long seen parents and families as key levers for improving U.S. student outcomes and success, and new cross-sector collaborative policy and initiatives provide a promising context for innovations in efforts to engage nondominant families in educational equity reform. Drawing on a lens of equitable collaboration, this study…

There is concern that civic engagement in the U.S. has declined recently especially among the younger generations. It is known that one of the strongest predictors of civic engagement is education level, where those with at least a college degree typically have the highest levels of civic engagement. There is also emerging evidence that college…

California's 4-H Youth Development Program adopted an asset-based and systematic community development approach to studying successful Latino-serving youth development programs. This effort included a scan of Latino engagement resources and Latino-serving youth development settings as well as key informant interviews. Beyond generating important…

Purpose: To identify and understand factors influencing farmers' decisions to engage with extension activities. To understand farmer segments and how these factors vary in order to develop recommendations for future extension delivery. Methodology: Qualitative data was obtained through semi-structured interviews with 30 Tasmanian dairy farmers.…

Participation of students is defined as a conditional factor for the acquisition of democracy learning and is increasingly taken into account in Austrian schools. Nevertheless, in contrast to other countries, little research has been conducted in Austria about if or how democracy learning provides a template for the social practice of student…

This chapter describes a model of assessment based on Action Research that promotes and relies on faculty engagement to improve student learning.