Bridging the Gap between Theory and Practice in Educational Research: Methods at the Margins

This book provides new ways of thinking about educational processes, using quantitative and qualitative methodologies. Ultimately, it aims at expanding knowledge itself - altering the centre by allowing the margins to inform it - allowing it to be extended to include those ways of knowing that have historically been unexplored or ignored.

Table of Contents:
The Not-Centre: The Margins and Educational Research; R.Winkle-Wagner PART I: THEORY The Politics of Knowledge: What an Examination of the Margins Can Offer; B.Dennis On the Tasks of the Critical Educational Scholar/Activist; M.Apple Making Sense of the Call for Scientifically Based Research in Education; G.Delandshere Playing at the Margins: Methodological Innovations With a Purpose; P.Carspecken Theory of the Margins: Liberating Research in Education; B.Dennis PART II: METHODOLOGY Uncloaking Epistemologies through Methodology; A.Lawrence Research as if Place Mattered: Towards a Methodology of Emplacement; J.Hunter Twisted Time: The Educative Chronologies of American Indian History; D.Warren Researching Hispanic Undergraduates: Conceptual and Methodological Unease; A.Nora Cross-racial Validation: The Process of Validating Research Across Racial Lines; R.Winkle-Wagner PART III: EXEMPLARS Engaging the Margins: Working Toward a Methodology of Empowerment; J.Hunter Educating the 'Savage' and 'Civilized':  Santa Clara Pueblo Indians at the 1904 St. Louis Expo; A.Lawrence 'Intimately Biased': Creating Purposeful Research in American Indian Education with Appropriate and Authentic Methodology; T.Yazzie-Mintz Lesbian Youth and the 'Not Girl' Gender: Explorations of Adolescent Lesbian Lives through Critical Life Story Research; E.Payne Breaking the Hymen and Reclaiming the 'Cherry': Adolescent Language Use in Negotiations of Autonomy in a Sexuality Education Program; C.A.Hunter Citizenship Education in the Global Era; D.Hinderliter Ortloff Quantitative Approaches as a Bridge from the Invisible to the Visible: The Case of Basic Education Policy in a Disadvantaged Nation; A.Yonehara

About the Author :
Barbara Dennis, Indiana University, USA Michael Apple, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA Ginette Delandshere, Indiana University, USA Phil Carspecken, Indiana University, USA Adrea Lawrence, American University, USA Joshua Hunter, Cleveland, Ohio, USA Donald Warren, Indiana University, USA Amaury Nora, University of Houston, USA Tarajean Yazzie-Mintz, Indiana University, USA Elizabethe Payne, Syracuse University, USA Aki Yonehara, Meiji University, Japan

Review :
"This is a wonderful book, not only for researchers and practitioners in education but for those who are interested in examining - and living - everyday life as a praxis of self and social transformation." - Peter McLaren, Professor, Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles, and Author of Schooling as a Ritual Performance and Life in Schools "Along with evocative dialogue anchored in rigorous and unremitting questioning of the idea of 'marginality,' this finely-crafted and unwaveringly evocative text challenges the reader to reexamine the fierce grip and stultifying effects that extant educational theory and 'methodological correctness' continue to have on educational inquiry. From chapters on theory and research methods to exemplars of inquiry at/on the margins, this innovative text is a signature contribution to the literature and is destined to immeasurably enrich and enlarge the landscape of educational inquiry for years to come." - Clifton Conrad, Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis, University of Wisconsin-Madison "To bring alive the concept of margin groups and methodological margins, as the authors have done, is commendable. To challenge researchers working contentedly in the centre in such an engaging and evocative way is clever. This is a must read book for anyone interested in how we learn about education." - Widening Participation and Lifelong Learning