This is the final report of a 2-year qualitative study of 3 elementary schools implementing the Success for All (SFA) program. Success for All is a research-based reform model that organizes resources to focus on prevention and early intervention to ensure that students succeed in reading throughout the elementary grades. Data were gathered in 61…

This paper asserts that through foundations courses in teacher education programs, all preservice teachers, not only social studies teachers, should come to understand the concept of cultural influence through an examination of the philosophical, ideological, and historical past. This paper examines the subject-matter content, authentic assessment…

This study explored how adult students define success in college and their perceptions of factors that either support or hinder achievement of this success. Thirteen returning adult students at two institutions were interviewed using a grounded theory approach. Data were analyzed inductively and iteratively to identify persistent themes. Students…

This study focuses on the effectiveness and advantages of using an explicit phonics based reading program in kindergarten through second grade. The methods of decoding words that teachers introduce to the beginning readers must prove to be effective in introducing and building reading skills. Most recent studies have revisited and concurred with…

This paper reports on a small-scale, recently completed qualitative project conducted in the United Kingdom that focuses on links between refugee families and the schools their children attend. The project attempted to study the relationships between refugee parents and education professionals in order to identify factors that encourage or hinder…

In response to a survey on attitudes and practices of teachers of first-year college composition, this study notes an anomaly related to resistance (apparent unwillingness or discomfort) on the part of respondents to limit themselves to the constraints of the objective survey items. This condition was considered to produce potential problems in…

Using the theoretical framework of hermeneutics and guided by the conceptual framework of Developmentally and Culturally Appropriate Practice, two studies examined how preschool teachers perceive young children's gender differences in relation to the pedagogical considerations. Participants in Study 1 were 121 early childhood educators attending…

A president describes the steps taken by his institution to communicate with interested parties that his institution is meeting its challenges as a transfer-oriented institution. Multiple survey approaches are discussed along with a number of qualitative approaches that contribute to the institution's ability to document its successes with its…

Argues that women are unaccounted for in most phenomenographic studies, for several reasons: most research has been conducted in fields and using samples in which women are underrepresented; the traditional disciplines of study are patriarchal; and the "outcome space" is defined in cognitive terms, neglecting the affective dimension…

Discusses use of phenomenographic research methods in different cultures, drawing on two University of the South Pacific (Fiji) studies of student learning. Argues that although similar conceptions of learning may be found in diverse settings, different learning styles may be emphasized. Differentiates between students' conceptions of learning and…

Outlines the seven stages of the Research Activity Timeline (RAT) data collection/analysis technique which structures the research interview around a discussion of participants' current specific work projects. Illustrates the use of RAT through results of the Information Access Project, which examined the use of information technology-assisted…

Presents a qualitative multiple-case study of three online asynchronous computer conferences that were part of a doctoral program at Nova Southeastern University. Examines the learning process from the points of view of interaction, cognition, and discourse analysis and proposes a model for assessing sociocognitive processes in computer…

Examines various criteria that have been proposed for evaluating the increasing number of empirical studies carried out using qualitative research methods and demonstrates how such criteria may privilege certain forms of qualitative research while excluding others. Select existing evaluative criteria for qualitative research proposed by applied…

Because the researcher's interpretation is the final word, traditional research reinforces relations of domination. When popular theater is used as research methodology, the interviewer's interpretation is performed immediately following data collection, and interviewees offer their interpretations of the interpretation. This gives voice to those…

Traditional discursive practices in reporting research results serve as structures that reinforce dominant ideologies and suppress others. A project in which survivors of childhood trauma represented their experiences in quilt blocks demonstrates how alternative representational forms acknowledge a component of society that neutral,…