To use environmental program evaluation to increase effectiveness, predictive power, and resource allocation efficiency, evaluators need good data. Data require sufficient credibility in terms of fitness for purpose and quality to develop the necessary evidence base. The authors examine elements of data credibility using experience from critical…

In many graduate schools of education there is strong resistance to formal theories, especially those that are supported through quantitative empirical methods. In this article we describe how self-determination theory (SDT), a formal and empirically focused framework, shares sensibilities with critical theorists concerning the importance of…

Independent evaluation of refugee-focused programs in developed nations is increasingly a mandatory requirement of funding bodies and government agencies. This paper presents an evaluation of the Integrated Services Centre (ISC) Pilot Project that was conducted in Australia in 2007 and early 2008. The purpose of the ISC program was to provide…

In this commentary, I, a research participant in Hilary Conklin's study, respond to her article by relating honesty to compassion and mindfulness. In addition to endorsing the intrapersonal honesty that Conklin supports in her article, I assert that interpersonal honesty can benefit the researcher, research participants, and research findings. I…

Many researchers lack the resources, time, and/or expertise to include qualitative strategies in their research. In recent years, substantive progress has been made among qualitative methodologists themselves to codify and systematize concept construction and typologies in qualitatively derived theory. These authors discuss the work of Rena Pasick…

Literature on principal leadership in professional development offers important but underdeveloped conceptions of how school principals promote professional development for social justice. This article offers an empirically-based framework of the principal's role in professional development for social justice. An in-depth qualitative multicase…

Although deemed vital to patient well-being, hope in persons who are terminally ill is often thought to be problematic, particularly when centered on cure. As part of a study on end-of-life decision-making, we asked 28 patients with cancer, believed to be within weeks of their death, to talk about hope. Responses were transcribed and discursively…

This phenomenological qualitative study explores motivation for citizen participation in a local context by exploring the experiences of Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) club advisors from public high schools. Fourteen advisors from one midwestern state were randomly recruited for participation. Inductive and deductive qualitative analyses elucidated…

Through this descriptive qualitative study of institutional advertisements aired on television during the 2006-2007 college football bowl season, I sought to understand the messages communicated by colleges and universities to external audiences. The findings demonstrate the focus on selling the private benefits of higher education and call into…

Librarians throughout higher education must assess information literacy; however, many are overwhelmed by the prospect of selecting the best assessment for their campus context. This article presents six questions to aid librarians in surmounting this challenge. Are we ready to conduct an information literacy assessment? Why are we conducting this…

This study explored 130 secondary school students' conceptions of learning using an open-ended task, analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. Students' reality of learning comprised two separate spheres, ideal learning and school learning, which rarely interacted. Generally, students commented more about school than ideal learning. Factor…

Although the displacement of people from their home countries is of growing concern, little attention has been paid to refugees in the counselling literature. Experiences of refugees are more complex and difficult than those of voluntary immigrants because refugees are typically pushed out of their countries. Using heuristic inquiry, four main…

Researchers at the Center of High Performance Learning Technologies (CHPLE), Virginia Tech, conducted a study investigating issues related to integration of learning technologies with architectural systems in contemporary learning environments. The study is qualitative in nature, and focuses on integration patterns of learning technologies with…

This paper presents the pre-and-post-reflections of English language instructors concerning the incorporation of a new pedagogy in English as foreign language (EFL) writing classes in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This approach is to integrate and blend wiki-mediated writing into a different course plan, with tasks that fit with the normal syllabi…

Inclusive education (IE) has been recognized as a key strategy to ensure education for all in the developing world for the last two decades. As a developing country, Bangladesh is striving to address IE by undergoing various initiatives such as policy reform, awareness creation and teacher development. This paper based on a qualitative approach…