Purpose: The aim of this article is to address some aspects of a cross-cultural interview study conducted in a PhD research project. This is done by reflecting on and discussing the influence of language and culture on the research process, as experienced by the researcher. Design/methodology/approach: The experiences have been taken from an…

This article provides a reflexive account of the authors' experiences of the ethical challenges in conducting a higher degree by research (HDR) supervision project prompted by the ethics review process in a major Australian university. The authors also raise epistemological questions about the specific focus of the study, given the interrelations…

This article by Dr. Mahmoud M. S. Abdallah provides a comprehensive guide to formulating a research problem in education and language learning, particularly for TESOL/TEFL researchers. It emphasizes the importance of a well-defined research problem as the cornerstone of any research project, guiding the selection of methods, data collection, and…

While research that is embedded in schools is reported widely in education and psychological research literature, studies that focus on how researchers might navigate school-based gatekeepers is minimal. This study addresses this gap. The research presented in this paper reports on the recruitment process that was employed in a study that involved…

This powerful resource is for researchers and educational leaders who are interested in understanding and applying research methods that emphasize youth voice. The authors argue that most educational research either omits critical understandings of youth or, even worse, presents inaccuracies due to faulty techniques. Researching how youth…

Being closely associated with your research subject brings methodological and ethical challenges. This case will discuss these challenges in the context of a study on how university teachers are affected by student feedback, where the researcher was a colleague of the teachers studied. The experiences from the study highlight the importance of…

In this paper, we consider the intensifying pressures on critical research and academic integrity in a research policy context that has come to be increasingly dominated by an instrumentalist mind-set. Using sensitising resources drawn from Geoff Whitty's critique of the 'what works' agenda, we reflect on the current conditions of academic labour…

This article addresses the gap between what works in research and what works in practice. Currently, research in evidence-based education policy and practice focuses on randomized controlled trials. These can support causal ascriptions ("It worked") but provide little basis for local effectiveness predictions ("It will work…

The ongoing challenges in equitable research involving Indigenous peoples and their communities and ways to overcome these are discussed in this article. Central to this article is the narrative reflection of a non-Indigenous researcher following research on Indigenous spirituality, well-being and resilience in the Yaegl community of northern New…

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…

Early career researchers are faced with the expectation of their scientific communities to conduct independent research, which is reflected in the development of independent new research lines. This change must take place under conditions that vary between national career systems. Case studies for a chair system (Germany) and two tenure systems,…

This paper will offer a reflexive account of the research approaches used in linguistically and culturally diverse education contexts by an academic researcher from the hegemonic cultural mainstream. The discussion will cover some of the potential barriers to research with linguistically, ethnically and/or culturally diverse "others" and…

Nearly all quantitative analyses in higher education draw from incomplete datasets-a common problem with no universal solution. In the first part of this paper, we explain why missing data matter and outline the advantages and disadvantages of six common methods for handling missing data. Next, we analyze real-world data from 5,905 students across…

Using John Creswell's Research Process Cycle as a framework, this article describes various web-based collaborative technologies useful for enhancing the organization and efficiency of educational research. Visualization tools (Cacoo) assist researchers in identifying a research problem. Resource storage tools (Delicious, Mendeley, EasyBib)…

Educational researchers, like other academic investigators, are expected to carry out research in an ethical manner. This paper draws on the author's experience of conducting a research study related to social justice, which examines intergenerational dynamics and education amongst British Asian families. It discusses the importance of ethical…