This volume offers a unique commentary on the diverse ways that educational inquiry is conceived, designed and critiqued. An international team of scholars examines cross-cutting themes of how research in education is conceptualised, characterised, contextualised, legitimated and represented. Contributions include specially commissioned essays, critical commentaries, vignettes, dialogues and cases. Each section discusses the significance of a complex terrain of ideas and critiques that can inform thinking and practice in educational research. The result is a thorough and accessible volume that offers fresh insights into the perspectives and challenges that shape diverse genres of research in education. ​

This state-of-the-art Companion assembles and assesses the extant research available on teacher education and provides clear guidelines on future directions. It addresses an important need in a collection that will be of value for teachers, teacher educators, policymakers and politicians. There has been little sustained, long-term or systematic research to provide empirical support for the broad aspects of teacher education policy, largely because such research has been chronically underfunded and based on traditional practitioner knowledge. Many of the changes to teacher education are contentious and yet are occurring in rapid succession. These policies and movements have important consequences for education, teacher quality and the future of the teaching profession. At the same time, the policies and initiatives that support these changes seem to be based more on ideology, business interests and tradition than on research and empirical findings. The nature, quality and effectiveness of teacher preparation have increasingly become a central focus for education policy worldwide in a fiercely argued debate among governments, think-tanks, world policy agencies, education researchers and teacher organisations.

The Routledge International Companion to Education addresses the key issues underpinning the rethinking and restructuring of education at the beginning of the new millennium. The volume contains over fifty major contributions exploring a wide range of issues, including: * philosophy of education * the economics and resourcing of education * testing and assessment: current issues and future prospects * standards * multiculturalism * anti-racism * computers in classrooms * mother tongue education * civics and moral education. Each chapter gives a contemporary account of developments in the field, and looks to the future and the directions that new activity and inquiry are likely to take. All the chapters are written from an international perspective.

“a powerful, well informed argument for the importance of pluralism… This book will tell young researchers what they need to know about doing educational research; it will encourage experienced researchers to see their own practice in context. It is a profound book that everyone should read."– Professor Jane Gaskell, Dean, OISE, University of Toronto “This brilliant guide to judging educational research examines the most basic questions about research practice that most people think are settled, and reveals them as problematic… Humorous, sharp, and thoughtful, this readable inquisition explores from differing perspectives ‘what does good education research look like’ in multiple forms including dissertations, journal articles, and grant proposals.†– Sari Knopp Biklen, Laura and Douglas Meredith Professor, Syracuse University, USA This book explains and critically examines some key debates about the quality and value of education research, and shows how it must meet different demands in different places, times and conditions. A major part of the book provides detailed analyses and guidance to different areas in which education research is judged: from academic theses to the press; from highest level competition for prestigious grants to collaborative work with practitioners. Lyn Yates asks probing questions in six education research arenas – the thesis, the research grant application, the journal article, the consultancy application, book publishing, and the press: Who are the judges here? What expectations and networks do they bring to the task? What are the explicit and implicit criteria for good research in that area? What are the common failings? What does good research look like? The book is an indispensable companion to existing textbooks on research methodology. It provides a clear and provocative discourse about the banalities and disorderliness in which education researchers have to operate.

The SAGE Companion to Research in Education provides a thoroughly up-to-date, comprehensive and critical commentary on the main themes and debates in educational research. This companion combines authoritative contributions with useful summaries, case studies, examples and vignettes to provide a valuable source of guidance for students seeking answers to complex research questions from an ever-widening pool of methods and methodologies. The contributions are all focused on addressing issues of real significance to the practicing researcher, such as: " How are the aims and purposes of research established? " Which epistemological, ontological, axiological and methodological approached might be taken? " How and why are research projects influence, designed and conducted in particular ways? " For whom and how is research reported and communicated? The SAGE Companion to Research in Education is an indispensable resource for anyone carrying out research in education and related fields.

A Companion to the Philosophy of Education is a comprehensive guide to philosophical thinking about education. Offers a state-of-the-art account of current and controversial issues in education, including issues pertaining to multiculturalism, special education, sex education, and academic freedom. Written by an international team of leading experts, who are directly engaged with these profound and complex educational problems. Serves as an indispensable guide to the field of philosophy of education.

This innovative book combines what most books separate: research as practical activity and research as intellectual engagement. It clarifies and makes explicit the methodological issues that underlie the journey from initial research idea to the finished report and beyond. The text moves the researcher logically through the research process and provides insights into methodology through an in-depth discussion of methods. It presents the research process as an engagement with text. This theme moves through the construction of text in the form of data and the deconstruction of text in analysis. Finally the focus moves to the reconstruction of text through the re-presentation of the research in the report. Following through each of these stages in turn, the chapters consider either a practical issue or a group of methods and interrogate the associated methodological concerns. In addition, the book also addresses the rarely explored issues of the researcher as writer and researcher identity as core elements of the research process. The book provides a range of insights and original perspectives. These successfully combine practical guidance with the invitation to consider the problematic nature of research as social practice. It is an ideal reference for those embarking on research for the first time and provides a new methodological agenda for established researchers.

A Companion to the Anthropology of Education presents a comprehensive and state-of-the-art overview of the field, exploring the social and cultural dimension of educational processes in both formal and nonformal settings. Explores theoretical and applied approaches to cultural practice in a diverse range of educational settings around the world, in both formal and non-formal contexts Includes contributions by leading educational anthropologists Integrates work from and on many different national systems of scholarship, including China, the United States, Africa, the Middle East, Colombia, Mexico, India, the United Kingdom, and Denmark Examines the consequences of history, cultural diversity, language policies, governmental mandates, inequality, and literacy for everyday educational processes