This article explores two forms of research on practice: formal research and practical inquiry. Formal research is undertaken by researchers and practitioners to contribute to an established and general knowledge base. Practical inquiry is undertaken by practitioners to improve their practice. It is suggested that practical inquiry is more likely than formal research to lead to immediate classroom change; that these two forms of research are fundamentally different; and that both are useful to practice, but in different ways.

Conducting Research on Practice

An Internet survey for perceptions of computers and the World Wide Web: relationship, prediction, and difference

This literature review explores the historical development of information and communication technology (ICT) in Irish postprimary/secondary schools and examines how the education system has responded to the various ICT initiatives and policy changes. The review has found that despite national policy and significant ICT initiatives, it appears that the use of computer technology has instead evolved independent of these changes. The various policy nudges throughout the past three decades have had limited impact on the nature of its use. The predominant use of the technology lies within discrete informatics subjects which tend to focus on learning about the technology rather than learning with it. Future ICT policy needs to be cognisant of the past, particularly how national ICT initiatives are mediated within schools and the powerful influence of the prevailing ICT culture on external ICT initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

https://ulir.ul.ie/bitstream/handle/10344/2397/the%20development%20of%20ict%20across%20the%20curriculum%20in%20irish%20schools-%20%20a%20historical%20perspective%20(2008).pdf?sequence=2

The development of ICT across the curriculum in Irish schools: A historical perspective

In order to address the issue of persistent teacher shortages, urban districts increasingly rely on alternatively licensed teachers who are often viewed as well-suited to work in urban areas because of their greater age, life and work experiences, and understanding of diverse communities. Yet, research on the retention of these teachers remains inconclusive, with some notable studies suggesting that alternatively licensed teachers are as likely as their traditionally prepared counterparts to quit teaching or migrate out of urban school settings. In this study, we explore the process and salient considerations of five alternatively licensed math and science teachers deciding whether or not to continue teaching in a Midwestern, urban school district. Whereas previous studies typically examine teacher recruitment and retention issues through a narrow analysis of labor market incentives and other external inducements, our study situates teachers’ career decisions within a more holistic narrative that illustrates how individual actions are never determined by any single factor, but rather a web of simultaneous and sometimes contradictory forces generated by prior expectations and immediate realities that are professional as well as personal in nature.

Should I Stay or Should I Go? Examining the Career Choices of Alternatively Licensed Teachers in Urban Schools

A qualitative study was conducted to determine the rationale for 31 American Indian grandparents’ who provide sole care of their grandchildren, the impact of historical trauma on their decision making process in accessing services, the value of American Indian Child Welfare policies in addressing care issues, and custody status of the grand families. Indian Outreach Workers, Community Health Representatives, Elder Program Directors, and tribal community leaders were key in the recruitment of participants. The grandparents were informed of the purpose of the study and participated in face-to-face, paper and pencil, individual interviews. The subjects included 29 grandmothers and two grandfathers; age 43–86 years, with 20 who lived off reservation land and 11 who lived on reservation land in Michigan. A phenomenological approach of the “world of the lived experience” informed the design of the study. The researchers recorded the subjects’ responses via field notes, conducted a comparison of responses to assess internal reliability, and entered the responses into the qualitative data analysis Nvivo program. Findings included; (1) reasons for providing sole care of grandchildren (2) stressors and rewards of providing sole care (3) grandparents decisions affected by historical traumas which focused on the boarding school issues and the removal of children from their homes due to cultural differences causing a reluctance to seek and access national and state programs (4) grandparents preference was to seek and access services provided by their Tribal Nations, and/or American Indian urban agencies (5) most lacked legal custodial status which is an indicator the grandparents’ may have benefited from knowledge of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA).

American Indian grand families: a qualitative study conducted with grandmothers and grandfathers who provide sole care for their grandchildren.

Computers - the Social Revolution of Our Time Computer Hardware Basics Educational Software The Computer as a Tool Technology and the Curriculum Technology for Inclusion Multimedia and Hypermedia Networking and Telecommunicaion Ethical and Legal Aspects of Teaching with Technology.

Computers, Curriculum, and Cultural Change: An Introduction for Teachers

Teachers and a Changing Society: 19641984 The New Ethos of Schooling and Strains on Teachers The Freedom to Teach Teachers's Freedom and Educational Choice The Authority to Teach Teacher's Authority in New School Culture The Power to Teach Teachers' Power in a Negotiated Environment Conclusion: Facing the Structural Strains of the Occupation Appendices References

Schoolteachers and Schooling: Ethoses in Conflict

Catholic and Federal Indian Education in the Late 19th Century: Opposed Colonial Models.

Legislated learning describes accurately the assumptions underlying educational legislation in Florida from 1976 to 1985. This study explores the failure of teachers to accept models of legislated learning imposed on them. While 86.7% of teachers surveyed identified "the times I know I have `reached' a student or group of students and they have learned" as the most salient intrinsic reward in teaching, 74% of teachers interviewed found legislated learning as questioning competency, limiting the scope of teachers' work and/or political interference. Instead of creating an incentive of a better educational environment, legislated learning, according to interviewees, functioned as a disincentive to these teachers.

Disincentives to Teaching: Teacher Reactions to Legislated Learning

RELIGION REPRESENTS one of the most constant and contentious issues in American culture and society. As a subject, it also raises some of the most important questions for those interested in educational policy analysis. The theme of this special issue is religion and education. The immediacy of this topic came home to us as we began to prepare the issue during the summer of 1999. At that time, the debate concerning evolution and whether it should be included in the curriculum of the public schools reemerged as a national issue when the Kansas State Board of Education voted 6 to 4 to remove the teaching of evolution from the state’s curriculum standards. The conflict concerning evolution goes back more than 75 years to 1925, when John T. Scopes, a biology teacher and coach, was convicted of teaching evolution in a Dayton, Tennessee, high school. Scopes had violated the 1925 Butler Act, which made it unlawful to “teach any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible.” The details of the story are well-known. Newspaper coverage made the trial a national event—perhaps the first nationally driven media debate about religion and education. Subsequently, through the play and movie Inherit the Wind, the Scopes Monkey Trial became a part of our literary and cultural consciousness. Scopes lost the trial in Dayton. After an appeal, the Tennessee Supreme Court dismissed his conviction. Despite this fact, the Butler Act remained on the books until 1967. Its influence, and the values that supported it, could be found in other regions of the country. One of the authors of this introduction,

Gary N. McCloskey

Papers

Computers, Curriculum, and Cultural Change: An Introduction for Teachers

Schoolteachers and Schooling: Ethoses in Conflict

Catholic and Federal Indian Education in the Late 19th Century: Opposed Colonial Models.

Disincentives to Teaching: Teacher Reactions to Legislated Learning

Religion and Public Education: An Introduction to the Special Issue