The original call for research papers went out in the summer of 2011 and, by September, there were over thirty abstracts returned for review, from many countries including Hong Kong, Nigeria, Poland, Jamaica, Malta, the United States, Japan, Ireland and, of course, Britain. Of the proposals reviewed and accepted, 21 were finally presented at…

"Data use" and "data-based decision making" are increasingly popular mantras in public policy discourses and texts. Policy makers place tremendous faith in the power of data to transform practice, but the fate of policy makers' efforts will depend in great measure on the very practice they hope to move. In most conversations…

Taking a post-colonial stand and using school to work transition as an example, the author re-examines the special education discourses in Taiwan and attempts to construct alternate understandings of transition from sociological and cultural perspectives. A review of past transition literature and a survey of the educational background of the…

Drawing on concepts developed in actor-network theory and postphenomenology this article shows how material objects in the science classroom become part of epistemic configurations and thus co-shape science education. An ethnographic study on epistemic objects in science education is the basis for the analysis of two of these objects: experimental…

In recent years there has been an upsurge of interest in applying actor-network theory (ANT) to educational research and analysis. This article presents an account of how an ANT analysis of socio-material practices with a focus on objects can bring informal learning and identity formation to view. It is based on a doctoral study of the everyday…

Background: Self-regulated learning (SRL) has mainly been conceptualized to involve student learning within academic settings. In teacher education, where learning from theory and practice is combined, student teachers also need to regulate their learning. Hence, there is an urgent need to extend SRL theories to the domain of teacher learning and…

This article outlines an exploration into the development of visual perception through analysing the process of taking photographs of the mundane as small-scale research. A preoccupation with social construction of the visual lies at the heart of the investigation by correlating the perceptive process to Mitchell's (2002) counter thesis for visual…

Despite societal imperatives for equity--whether espoused by nation states or transnational agencies like UNESCO--current models of higher education are unequivocally failing to provide universal access. This paper seeks to explore the (cyber)spaces (un)occupied by higher education, specifically in the area of curriculum studies, arguing that the…

This article examines the levels of analysis adopted in higher education research, using a database of 567 articles published in 15 leading higher education journals internationally during 2010. Level of analysis is a relatively overlooked issue in this field of research, when compared with methodology, theory and/or topic--to which it is, of…

This article highlights some of the obstacles facing tenure-track faculty of color in academia. Through the perspective of Critical Race Theory (CRT) and by using a counterstories method, four faculty of color share their experiences as they explore diversity issues through engaging in a 1-year self-study. Findings of this qualitative study…

In this 2012 American Educational Research Association (AERA) Presidential Address, the author considers this year's conference theme--how to take what we know from research and put it to effective (policy and practice) use. The essay challenges members individually and collectively to improve the connection. She reflects on the history of AERA as…

This article presents analysed data from the first year of the Rural Teacher Education Project (RTEP 2007-2009) with a view to illustrating how a generative theory of rurality as education research was developed, and for which ends it might be utilised. The article suggests that data from projects in rural communities, which take the rural as…

Over the last four decades, International Baccalaureate (IB) schools have become increasingly important in the global market of international education. This is especially evident in Asia Pacific, which has evidenced the fastest growth in IB schools, as well as international schools more generally, across the world over the last decade. Despite…

The literature on educational leadership and management has referred to culture since at least the 1970s. Despite the concept's mention in over one-third of articles written in this journal, there has been little in-depth engagement with how leaders might influence it and the ethical issues involved. The article argues that leadership must engage…

This review provides an overview of the the current state of research on professional development in science education. An analytical frame was used, based on what is known about PD from educational research. Clarke and Hollingsworth's model for teacher professional growth was also used to categorise the studies according to their aims and…