The characteristics of the middle level philosophy as described in This We Believe closely parallel the collaborative research process. The journey of one research team is described in relationship to these characteristics. The collaborative process includes strengths such as professional relationships, professional development, courageous…

Looking across the papers of this special issue, Volume 48, Number 2 and Volume 49, Number 1, this commentary paper suggests that by attempting to set stages of teacher effectiveness, collectively these five papers contribute toward making a step from exploring if teachers matter for student learning to understanding how teachers could be…

While acknowledging that ethnography has been a rarely adopted approach in the field of higher education research, I will try to demonstrate the contributions that ethnographies have made to higher education studies. I will introduce readers to several of the most important and interesting ethnographic studies of university settings, focusing on…

Very little is known about whether and what kinds of research are being undertaken at private higher education institutions (PHEIs) in South Africa. This article draws on a recent survey of all registered PHEIs undertaken by a group of interested private higher education providers. This survey was facilitated by the Council on Higher Education…

Early childhood educators are increasingly asked to support the alphabet knowledge development of children enrolled in their classrooms. Children in the same classroom, however, often show vastly different alphabet learning needs. Moreover, recent research suggests that some letters are more difficult to learn. These facts run counter to…

Celebrating 100 years of the National Communication Association necessitates that, as we commemorate our past, we also look toward our future. As part of a larger conversation about the future of instructional communication, this essay reinvestigates the importance of integrating biosocial approaches into instructional communication research. In…

The activities of the European Educational Research Association (EERA) and the yearly European Conference on Educational Research (ECER) are mainly organised in standing networks. Through the example of the Policy Studies and Politics of Education network, this article takes a closer look at network activity and the ways in which it contributes to…

Gifted education has a rich history and a solid if uneven research base. As policy makers and educators increasingly turn their attention to advanced students and educational excellence, the time is ripe for a dispassionate analysis of the field's conceptual and empirical strengths and weaknesses. The purpose of this special feature article…

This article presents an epistemological overview of abyssal thinking and its impact on the field of education, particularly in relation to teachers' work, as it is done and understood. It argues that the clearest expression of abyssal thinking is the hegemony of science which explains two school phenomena: the historical subalternisation of the…

This paper considers what is known and extends the knowledge about the value of using posters in tertiary student assessment. It carries out a literature review before considering academic staff and student feedback on poster presentations, highlighting the rationale for using them, challenges in implementing posters as a form of assessment, and…

While numbers of students with disabilities continue to rise in postsecondary education, little is known about the extent to which the scholarship on this student population has kept pace. A critical content analysis was conducted to review articles on students with disabilities published in top-tier journals of higher education between 1990 and…

Researchers have noted with concern the often weak link between research evidence and policymaking, particularly in some areas such as education. In this introductory essay--dedicated to the late Carol Weiss--we consider this issue first by reflecting on how changing historical conditions can shape institutional demands on and for research…

This research examines the work of four elementary music educators who strive to challenge the dominant paradigm of music education. I employed the methodology of a multiple case study to consider the discourses, practices and philosophies of these four educators. I observed in each school for an eight-week period for two full days each week,…

In this article we argue for the spatialization of research on educational transfer in the field of comparative education within a theoretical framework that focuses on networks, connections, and flows. We present what we call a "spatial empire of the mind," which is comprised of a set of taken-for-granted "truths" about space…

This paper uses Tight ("High Educ Res Dev" 23(4):395-411, 2004; "High Educ Res Dev" 31(5):723-740, 2012; "High Educ Res Dev" 32(1):136-151, 2013)'s journal analysis and review framework to review a sample of 497 journal articles on researches concerning international students over the past 30 years. It was found…