Drawing on insights from reflective research accounts in the social sciences, this paper attends to the complexities of conducting cross-boundary educational research. Cross-boundary research is defined as any type of inquiry that is conducted across cultural and/or structural boundaries, including but not limited to race, class, gender, language,…

Age-period-cohort (APC) models are designed to estimate the independent effects of age, time periods, and cohort membership. However, APC models suffer from an identification problem: There are no unique estimates of the independent effects that fit the data best because of the exact linear dependency among age, period, and cohort. Among methods…

This commentary revisits compelling arguments put forth by the contributors to this special issue on the role of race and ethnicity in academic motivation research. First, an overview of how race and motivation have been positioned in prominent theories of motivation is provided and juxtaposed with those offered in culturally responsive…

Educational research teams are increasingly recognized as an optimal configuration for addressing more complex mixed methods research problems; however, their development is often approached as a conventional research collaboration rather than an integrative one. An approach informed by complexity theory provides the practical guidance for…

Three folk psychology predispositions towards group behavior were proposed: (a) The folk psychologist breaks group behavior down into the actions of individuals; (b) He attributes group and group member behavior to causes internal to the group, and ignores situation causes; and (c) He attributes behavior to fixed rather than alterable causes. It…

In "On the Desirability of Own-Group Preference" (1993), Michael L. Penn, Stanley O. Gaines, and Layli Phillips argue that misguided and mythical ideal of racial-social integration in America is the only reasonable and effective foundation for real African empowerment in American society. Serious intellectual battle will be required to…

Educational researchers must clarify the distinction between the terms "ethnicity" and "ethnic membership." The use of broad terms based on easily observed traits, such as racial characteristics or language, has infiltrated otherwise well-executed studies and undermined their validity. (PP)

Claim of Michael L. Penn, Stanley O. Gaines, and Layli Phillips (1993) in their article "On the Desirability of Own-Group Preference"--that self-esteem and identity achievement are unrelated to own-group preference--is a matter of controversy. Recommendations are made for research that considers physical features beyond skin color,…

This commentary argues that the study reported in EC 605 442, which indicated long-term gains for children with autism who experienced intensive behavioral intervention as preschoolers, needs to be replicated to be convincing, especially given the problem of nonrandom assignment of experimental and control groups. (JDD)

Argues that little of what Michael L. Penn, Stanley O. Gaines, and Layli Phillips (1993) have to say in their article "On the Desirability of Own-Group Preference" about ethnic own-group preference is new and that it is distorted and naive interpretation of social history to carry on the tradition of blaming African Americans for the…

Research on school reform efforts and reform evaluation and the recognition that individual students are in constant transition and are members of multiple groups whose dynamics differ over the duration of schooling were examined. A conceptual framework for developing design and analysis strategies for investigating educational reform efforts is…

Reviews and critiques the ethnic preference research that views minorities' own-group preference behavior as indicative of self-esteem and identity achievement. The assumption that own-group preference is ideal, normative, or healthy is called into question; and an alternative conceptualization is presented that considers age and maturity of the…

This commentary on EC 605 442, which indicated long-term gains for children with autism who experienced intensive behavioral intervention as preschoolers, questions the magnitude of the student changes and their significance, because of concerns about the representativeness and comparability of the sample group and the failure to measure skills…

The methodology of interpretation of qualitative data was explored using a grounded theory approach to the synthesis of data, examining the construction of categories in particular. The focus is on ways of organizing data and attaching meaning, as research problems embedded in cultural context are explored. A qualitative research training task…

An argument is made against the use of school averages as composition measures by documenting the non-random nature of peer associations and by presenting evidence that different students are influenced by different reference groups. The structure of friendship associations among some 20,000 students in the McDill Twenty High School Sample is…