Research into mathematics education at university level includes a wide range of theoretical approaches. This poses considerable challenges to researchers in terms of understanding and harmonizing the compatibility and commensurability of those approaches. The research community has already problematised and studied these challenges using…

Most social scientists agree that case studies are useful for "theory building," but ethnographic methods papers often look to survey research for case selection strategies. This is due to a common but untenable distinction between theoretical and empirical generalization, which obscures how theoretically inclined ethnographers make…

This paper examines the rationale and academic relevance of having undergraduate social work majors at Elizabeth City State University (ECSU) compare and contrast social welfare and health policies between the US and Taiwan. By examining the differing policy frameworks of the two nations, students can gain a deeper understanding of diverse policy…

The purpose of this study was to compare and contrast frameworks for evaluating methodological rigor in single case research. Specifically, research on high-probability requests to increase compliance in young children was evaluated. Ten studies were identified and were coded using 4 frameworks. These frameworks were the Council for Exceptional…

This paper was prompted by the question, what do we mean by conducting "ethnography"? Is it in fact "case study" drawing on ethnographic techniques? My contention is that in many cases, researchers are not actually conducting ethnography as understood within a traditional sense but rather are engaging in case study, drawing on…

International comparative studies on mathematics teaching and learning often provide unitary and harmonious images of classroom practices. This paper aims to complement those studies by describing the complex aspects of those practices. Adopting activity theory as a framework, this paper considers classroom teaching and learning of mathematics as…

Drawing on rich case studies of Baltimore City and Boston, this volume identifies policy factors and processes critical to the successful district-wide adoption of community schools. By applying the Multiple Streams Model (Kingdon) to comparative analysis of policy determination and the narratives of local stakeholders across a 16-year period,…

Inspired by the work of David Raffe and his co-authors who set out the positive benefits gained from comparing the policies of "the UK home nations" in an article published in 1999, researchers in the Education and Curriculum Team launched a project in early 2020 that we called Curriculum Watch. The aim of this project was to collate a…

Fast-growing and evolving online content has enabled responsive curriculum updates to support students' learning of how to apply concepts to understand and solve real world problems. Written case studies have long served this purpose in a wide variety of disciplines, and many educators have seen value in presenting cases through the use of online…

This paper aims at examining the use of a theoretical and methodological framework originating in ergonomics, the 'course-of-action method', in the study of individual learning processes in naturally occurring situations. This framework investigates the course of lived experience of each individual. Thus, in addition, to her/his thinking, it…

Higher education (HE) reforms are usually inspired by New Public Management (NPM) global reform scripts. This article focuses on a pivotal object of NPM-driven reforms--central university governance structures. On the one hand, we present the founding ideas of NPM and sketch how they translate for these structures; on the other hand, two further…

Research on the internationalization of inclusive policies for students with special needs is still developing alongside the shifting implementation of practice. This analysis seeks to understand the process of adopting inclusive policies in Jordan and the subsequent implementation through a modified comparative case study framework. Current…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the ways that history curriculum has worked to legitimise dispossession through narratives that elide questions of Indigenous sovereignty, and which construct and consolidate white settler identity and possession. Design/methodology/approach: The paper uses two case studies to compare history…

We might call this decade the era of early childhood. In the US, federal and state governments invest in the creation of public pre-kindergarten (preK) programs and create standards that articulate goals for practice and benchmarks that can be used to evaluate success. How have these trends provided a context for the evolution of preK curriculum?…

To support emergent bilinguals in the content area classroom, applied linguists suggest teachers add metalinguistic conversations to their pedagogical repertoire. However, such language-centered pedagogies may become difficult to enact when a teacher sees language at the word level. This comparative teacher case study explores how teacher…