Showing papers in "Educational Researcher in 2005"

Telling Identities: In Search of an Analytic Tool for Investigating Learning as a Culturally Shaped Activity

Abstract: In this article, we make an attempt to operationalize the notion of identity so as to justify the claim about its potential as an analytic tool for investigating learning. According to our definition, identity is a set of reifying, significant, endorsable stories about a person. The subsequent analysis of the dynamics of narratives makes it clear that identities, even if individually told, are products of a collective storytelling. Our main claim is that learning may be thought of as closing the gap between actual identity and designated identity, two particular sets of reifying significant stories about the learner, endorsed by this learner. The theoretical substantiation of this assertion is accompanied by vignettes from a study in which mathematical learning practices of a group of 17 year old immigrant students from the former Soviet Union newly arrived in Israel were compared to those of native Israelis.

Scholars Before Researchers: On the Centrality of the Dissertation Literature Review in Research Preparation

Abstract: A thorough, sophisticated literature review is the foundation and inspiration for substantial, useful research. The complex nature of education research demands such thorough, sophisticated reviews. Although doctoral education is a key means for improving education research, the literature has given short shrift to the dissertation literature review. This article suggests criteria to evaluate the quality of dissertation literature reviews and reports a study that examined dissertations at three universities. Acquiring the skills and knowledge required to be education scholars, able to analyze and synthesize the research in a field of specialization, should be the focal, integrative activity of predissertation doctoral education. Such scholarship is a prerequisite for increased methodological sophistication and for improving the usefulness of education research.

Designing Educative Curriculum Materials to Promote Teacher Learning

Abstract: Curriculum materials for Grades K‐12 that are intended to promote teacher learning in addition to student learning have come to be called educative curriculum materials. How can K‐12 curriculum materials be designed to best promote teacher learning? What might teacher learning with educative curriculum materials look like? The authors present a set of design heuristics for educative curriculum materials to further the principled design of these materials. They build from ideas about teacher learning and organize the heuristics around important parts of a teacher’s knowledge base: subject matter knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge for topics, and pedagogical content knowledge for disciplinary practices. These heuristics provide a context for a theoretically oriented discussion of how features of educative curriculum materials may promote teacher learning, by serving as cognitive tools that are situated in teachers’ practice. The authors explore challenges in the design of educative curriculum materials, such as the tension between providing guidance and choice.

Mapping the Process: An Exemplar of Process and Challenge in Grounded Theory Analysis:

Abstract: This article responds to recent calls for greater clarity and transparency regarding methods in qualitative research. On the basis of a 3-year ethnographic study of the overrepresentation of minorities in special education, the authors address key tenets of grounded theory and attempt to reconcile some of the methodological challenges inherent in naturalistic inquiry. They discuss theoretical considerations and use a visual model to illustrate how they applied grounded theory to this complex and sensitive topic. Emphasizing the social nature of decision making in special education, the authors point to the appropriateness of qualitative methods to the investigation of such issues.

The New Teacher Education: For Better or for Worse?

Abstract: This article offers a reading of the current state of the field of teacher education, identifying current reforms, emerging trends, and new underlying premises The author argues that a “new teacher education” has been emerging with three closely coupled pieces: It is constructed as a public policy problem, based on research and evidence, and driven by outcomes Illustrating and critiquing each of these pieces, the article makes the case that the new teacher education is both for the better and for the worse The article concludes that education scholars who care about public education must challenge the narrowest aspects of the emerging new teacher education, building on its most promising aspects and working with others to change the terms of the debate

The Role of Recess in Children's Cognitive Performance and School Adjustment

Abstract: The authors suggest that the recess period serves a positive purpose in the primary school curriculum, counter to the current practice of minimizing recess in many schools across North America and the United Kingdom. The authors' position is embedded in the larger debate about school accountability; they argue that school policy should be based on the best theory and empirical evidence available. They support their argument for the importance of recess with theory and with experimental and longitudinal data showing how recess breaks maximize children's cognitive performance and adjustment to school.

Measuring Academic Proficiency Under the No Child Left Behind Act: Implications for Educational Equity

Abstract: The accountability requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 place high-poverty schools and racially diverse schools at a disadvantage because they rely on mean proficiency scores and require all subgroups to meet the same goals for accountability. In this article, student achievement data from six states are used to highlight differences in the demographic characteristics of schools identified as needing improvement and schools meeting the federal adequate yearly progress requirements. School-level data from Virginia and California are used to illustrate that these differences arise both from the selection bias inherent in using mean proficiency scores and from rules that require students in racially diverse schools to meet multiple performance targets. The authors suggest alternatives for the design of accountability systems that include using multiple measures of student achievement, factoring in student improvement on achievement tests in reading and mathematics, and incorporating state acc...

Critical Language Awareness in the United States: Revisiting Issues and Revising Pedagogies in a Resegregated Society

Abstract: As scholars examine the successes and failures of more than 50 years of court-ordered desegregation since Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, and 25 years of language education of Black youth since Martin Luther King Elementary School Children v. Ann Arbor School District Board, this article revisits the key issues involved in those cases and urges educators and sociolinguists to work together to revise pedagogies. After reviewing what scholars have contributed, the author suggests the need for critical language awareness programs in the United States as one important way in which we can revise our pedagogies, not only to take the students’ language into account but also to account for the interconnectedness of language with the larger sociopolitical and sociohistorical phenomena that help to maintain unequal power relations in a still-segregated society

Self-Care and the Qualitative Researcher: When Collecting Data Can Break Your Heart

Abstract: Conducting qualitative research on topics that are emotionally laden can have a powerful impact on the researcher Recent literature addresses the essential nature of the emotional connection that must be part of the qualitative research process However, for the most part, it neglects the issue of self-care strategies for the researcher that are appropriate under these circumstances Based on the author’s experience in researching the self-directed learning of breast cancer patients and on the limited literature that is available, this article addresses these important topics and calls for increased awareness of these issues and their significance in the preparation of novice researchers

Learning from Attempts to Improve Schooling: The Contribution of Methodological Diversity

Abstract: Education research is an interdisciplinary effort long characterized by methodological diversity. Why, then, do we hear an urgent call for mixed methods now? Apparently, a recent shift in the applied research agenda has fostered concern that methodological pluralism is at risk. In this article, the author argues that (a) a focus on evaluating the effects of instructional interventions is entirely appropriate given current policy dilemmas; (b) randomized experiments are the gold standard for assessing these effects; but (c) the success of the effort depends on a well-integrated, methodologically diverse research effort. He sketches how diverse methods might be combined and how a healthy scientific community might collaborate to generate adequate funding to support this vital enterprise.

Comparative Studies on U.S. and Chinese Mathematics Learning and the Implications for Standards-Based Mathematics Teaching Reform

Abstract: Chinese students often outperform US students on international tests in mathematics Chinese students’ mathematics performances are assumed to be related directly to their teachers’ deep mathematics understanding and ability to represent concepts flexibly in their classrooms, which, in turn, are thought to be influenced by Chinese mathematics curriculum and policies The authors examine this theoretical assumption through a systematic review of relevant literature and attempt to identify the relationship between Chinese students’ mathematics performance and the factors that contribute to their achievement On the basis of their review, the authors raise questions about the assumption and propose research that can lead to a better understanding of the relationship between the quality of students’ mathematics learning and the contexts in which their learning occurs

What Is “Good” Education Research?

Abstract: The question of what counts as good education research has received a great deal of attention, but too often it is conceived principally as a methodological question rather than an ethical one. Good education research is a matter not only of sound procedures but also of beneficial aims and results; our ultimate aim as researchers and educators is to serve people’s well-being. For their research to be deemed good in a strong sense, education researchers must be able to articulate some sound connection between their work and a robust and justifiable conception of human well-being. There is a good deal of history and convention against such a conception of researchers’ work. We need to consider the conditions needed if that conception is to be realized. Among the conditions is a concerted and cooperative endeavor for moral education among researchers and the people with whom they work—a context where questions of well-being are foregrounded, welcomed, and vigorously debated.

Doctoral Preparation of Scientifically Based Education Researchers

Abstract: Finding improved ways to train education researchers has taken on new urgency as federal legislation such as the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 call for “scientifically based research in education.” The authors of this article suggest an approach to socializing doctoral students to a common “culture of science” (a set of norms for scientific inquiry) and preparing them for interdisciplinary studies that span the natural and social sciences. Drawing on developments in the fields of neuroscience, sociology of natural science, and the learning sciences, the authors argue for an approach to doctoral training that is consistent with a broad definition of scientifically based research.

How to Publish in Scholarly Journals

Abstract: This article is based on an invited talk entitled “Getting Published While in Grad School,” which was presented for the Graduate Student Council of the American Educational Research Association at the association’s 2005 annual meeting. The authors discuss issues to consider when one is planning and writing a scholarly manuscript, and they offer several suggestions about substance, organization, and style. They also describe the journal submission and peer review process, including what to do if a journal editor’s decision is “revise and resubmit,” “accept pending revisions,” or “reject.”

Unlabeling the Disabled: A Perspective on Flagging Scores From Accommodated Test Administrations

Abstract: Accommodations to standard test administrations are granted on many tests for students who have one or more disabling conditions. In some instances, students’ scores from these nonstandard administrations are “flagged” to caution those who interpret the test score that the test was not administered under typical conditions. The practice of flagging such test scores is contentious. Some argue that it essentially informs others that a student has a disability and creates the opportunity for bias against the student. Others argue that such scores must be flagged to be fair to those who took the test under standard conditions and to promote valid test score interpretations. This article reviews the psychometric issues regarding the flagging issue and discusses the guidance provided by the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing. Research in this area related to college admissions testing is also reviewed and suggestions for avoiding the flagging issue in the future are provided. This review lends ...

The Effect of Schooling on Students’ Out-of-School Experience:

Abstract: With the premise that schooling should make a difference in students’ everyday experience, the authors synthesize research on the influence of school learning on students’ out-of-school experience by addressing the contributions and shortcomings of four research areas: (a) transfer, (b) out-of-school learning environments, (c) school-prompted interest, and (d) transformative education. They conclude the following: (a) Little research investigates the influence of school learning on out-of-school experience; (b) the existing research suggests that school learning has less of an influence on out-of-school experience than one would hope for and expect; and (c) under the right conditions, school learning can enrich students’ out-of-school experience.

Designing New Media Education Research: The Materiality of Data, Representation, and Dissemination

Abstract: The current historical moment is marked by the gradual transition from a print culture to a digital new media culture, and this shift carries material effects for how education research contexts are perceived and represented. This discussion uses the concept of materiality to demonstrate how the conceptualization of inquiry through digital representations can be theorized through the histories and discourses of multiple media, computer technologies, research methodologies, epistemological positions, new literacies, and current social and cultural contexts to highlight emerging concerns in education research. Paying attention to the design of materiality encourages scholars to reflect on how inscription technologies influence the ways in which research is conducted and communicated.

A Forward Glance in a Mirror: Diversity Challenged—Access, Equity, and Success in Higher Education

Abstract: Affirmative action addresses disparities in higher education. Recent trends threaten gains, resegregation is underway nationally. California outlawed affirmative action, the quality of K–12 education is declining, and prison construction is soaring. African American and Latino participation in higher education has declined; both groups are overrepresented in prisons and among the poor. Opponents pretend affirmative action threatens academic quality and promotes reverse discrimination. In fact, economic instability spurs efforts to defend status quo privilege. There is a clash of national ideologies, the American Dream versus White supremacy. Higher education must be a model for society in promoting equity, excellence, and diversity.

Inquiry, Imagination, and the Search for a Deep Politic:

Abstract: In this article, the author recommends that we consider how inquiry can facilitate the search for a deep politic. Using an epistemology that shifts between education and aesthetics, the search for a deep politic is based on our human potential to interrogate and (re)imagine everyday politics. By doing so, the author argues, it is possible to see anew and move beyond the status quo to the “not yet” without being completely immersed in the normative traditions of the present and past. Linking our ability to “see” everyday politics with our human ability to imagine and create facilitates a process of change that sits uneasily with the categories, structures, and relationships that tie us to the current constructions of our life-worlds.

Data-Mining Journals and Books: Using the Science of Networks to Uncover the Structure of the Educational Research Community

Abstract: To investigate the process through which the educational research community can become more vibrant and cohesive, the authors of this article ask: How can the numerous networks that constitute the field of educational research be analyzed in an effort to understand and influence the pattern through which knowledge of educational phenomena are exchanged? The authors contend that understanding these complex networks will illuminate the dynamic processes through which community members identify with one another, researchers collaborate, and ideas connect—three social processes that shape replication and generalization efforts. The authors outline three ways in which examining the field’s members and products can be used to move closer to the ambitious yet attainable goal of establishing an academic community that exchanges information in ways that allow others to confirm, extend, and generalize research findings.

Coffee Table to Classroom: A Review of Recent Scholarship on Historically Black Colleges and Universities

Abstract: been the subject of recent inquiry as well (Allen, 2002; Gasman & Epstein, 2002; Jarmon, 2003; Johnson, 2002; Stanfield, 2003). Lastly, there have been a few articles exploring the history of these institutions, delving into subjects such as civil rights, student activism, African American leadership, and fund raising (Gasman, 2001; Gasman, 2002; Gasman 2004b; Mattingly, 2004; Roy, 2000; Williamson, 2004a, 2004b). Importantly, this new historical research focuses on the post–World War II period—an area that scholars have only begun to study. Among these subjectspecific articles are several that mine broad educational data sources, treating Black colleges as specific cases in the general arena of higher education rather than as isolated institutions with no relation to their contexts. A weakness of this type of article is that it typically fails to incorporate any understanding of the history and culture of African Americans (Brown, 2003; K. Freeman, 1998). The most nuanced work has been in the areas of law and history and connects the subject of Black colleges to a larger body of ideas on race. A small number of studies on Black colleges are comprehensive in nature, covering a wide range of issues that pertain to these institutions and with sufficient depth to provide the general reader with a sense of the scope and variation among them (Allen, 2002; Drewry & Doermann, 2001). Over the past year, three new books have surfaced on Black colleges that help to clarify why these institutions remain important educational options for African Americans and many other students. Juan Williams and Dwayne Ashley’s I’ll Find a Way or Make One: A Tribute to Historically Black Colleges and Universities; M. Christopher Brown and Kassie Freeman’s Black Colleges: New Perspectives on Policy and Practice; and I’ll Find a Way or Make One: A Tribute to

Considering Pastoral Power: A Commentary on Aaron Schutz's “Rethinking Domination and Resistance: Challenging Postmodernism”:

Abstract: techniques—seeks to instill self-regulation of desire and action. Foucault points out that power operates at both the local level of continuous, productive interactions and at the larger, systemic level of institutions, regulations, and hegemonies (1976/1990, p. 93). These two levels depend on each other: “[O]ne must conceive of the double conditioning of a strategy by the specificity of possible tactics, and of tactics by the strategic envelope that makes them work” (1976/1990, p. 100). Schutz criticizes postmodernists for limiting their studies to the local resistance tactics practiced at individual sites, which enable some modicum of agency to be practiced by those subjected to soft, “pastoral” controls (p. 19), while larger social, cultural, and institutional systems remain intact. However, Foucault maintains that it is precisely through such multiple, local relations of power that larger effects of domination are produced, rather than through the topdown imposition of disciplinary controls (1976/1990, p. 94). However, this “which came first” argument is merely academic if, as Schutz suggests, marginalized populations are primarily subjected to discipline and the threat of violence. Disciplinary techniques work on the body (Foucault, 1975/1977, 1983), but they do not necessarily work through the threat of violence. According to Bevir (1999), on whom Schutz relies heavily for his distinction between discipline and pastoral power, Foucault “suggests” that discipline is necessarily violent. But Foucault himself says otherwise. Power exercised through violence, power acted immediately on others, “closes the door on all possibilities” (1983, p. 220). It limits what the state is able to do. Instead, power operates through inherently productive In his “Rethinking Domination and Resistance: Challenging Postmodernism” (Educational Researcher, January– February, 2004), Aaron Schutz questions what he sees as postmodernism’s fascination with the workings of pastoral modes of control, a preoccupation that prevents postmodernists from locating and opposing the disciplinary controls experienced by marginalized populations. While he concedes that oppression and resistance are not simple—indeed, that resistance often does not improve the conditions of the resistant—he is frustrated by what he sees as the tendency of postmodernists to focus on local acts and performances when it is clear that certain groups systematically and fairly consistently lack access to social and material goods. If postmodernism offers a more sophisticated view of power relations, it should also offer new insights on ways to alter those relations when they are inegalitarian. However, Schutz’s critique is based on an unnecessarily narrow conception of pastoral power and places it in a binary and opposing relationship with disciplinary power, moves that ignore Foucault’s conceptualization of pastoral power and his discussions of power more generally. In addition, in locating pastoral power mainly in middle-class and new capitalist1 learning situations, Schutz overlooks the pervasive nature of pastoral modes of control and their particularly corrosive variants in highpoverty settings. Pastoral care and control have a history in urban and marginalized school settings, where they are intended to instill self-discipline and self-monitoring in individuals seen as lacking those attributes. Both historical and more recent studies provide examples of pastoral techniques targeted specifically to populations seen by Schutz as largely subject to disciplinary controls; such findings suggest that people who are interested in effecting social change might find analyses of pastoral power very useful, indeed. This is not to deny the operation of some of the more coercive disciplinary controls in such settings, as illustrated by the heavy presence of police and security guards in urban schools. In addition, disciplinary technologies such as seating charts, forming lines, and taking attendance are found in most public schools in the United States, regardless of class, and are included in the general techniques outlined by Foucault in Discipline and Punish: timetables, the distribution of individual bodies within a partitioned space, individuation and documentation, hierarchical observation, normalizing judgments, and examination (Foucault, 1975/1977). However, if we are to do as Schutz wishes and cut through the mystification of control to enable people to resist their own domination, then we need to be accurate and specific about how and when domination occurs; and that includes understanding how pastoral control historically has operated differently in different settings. Foucault (1983) speaks of the power of the state as simultaneously totalizing and individualizing. It is totalizing in that it reasons in terms of populations and their control and government. It is individualizing in that it locates each individual and— through both disciplinary and pastoral Research News and Comment

Schooling Race Talk

Abstract: S oon after colleagues in my department began an American Indian Teacher Training Program, I met the director of a program with a history of preparing both Native and non-Native teachers to work in indigenous communities. Interested in hearing what the director saw as distinctive in their curriculum, I asked her what the student teachers were taught in their methods classes. "We teach them to listen," she told me. "The most important thing is for teachers in indigenous communities to talk to the people in the communities and to listen." How do teachers, especially teachers from outside a community, learn to listen? What does it mean to teach teachers to listen? Teachers often tell students to listen, but we seldom teach students to listen. Listening is supposed to be intuitive. On the rare occasions that listening is theorized in educational research, it tends to be treated not as profoundly relational, cultural, and political but as a generic virtue. In the pedagogical and philosophical scholarship on dialogue, for example, listening usually is understood in idealized, universal terms. In sociolinguistics, linguistic anthropology, and feminist research, where the gender, cultural, and political dimensions of listening have received more attention, what counts as listening across difference may be explored, but learning to listen across difference usually is not. Some teachers have had long practice at code-switching across race, nation, or other divides. For many educators, though, listening across differences may require learning new moral, intellectual, and visceral habits. Although we can communicate in multiple cultural registers (with family, friends, a boss, customers, strangers on the bus, acquaintances at the laundromat), we cannot expect our fluency in accustomed communicative contexts to transfer to all

Where the Action Is: The Microsociological Turn in Educational Research

Abstract: graphic methods. Randall Collins is widely recognized as being among the most innovative social theorists publishing today. I find myself arguing with him page after page, but there can be no doubt that his ideas are far more original than most of the ink spilled in academic journals. I feel comfortable making the claim that these two books are among the most important contributions to social theory in recent years and definitely qualify as major texts for the microsociological turn. These texts also hold special significance for educational researchers who have been instrumental in their development and stand to benefit from their insights. In Talk and Social Theory, Erickson explores the tension between local social interaction and processes that occur “beyond the temporal and spatial horizon of the immediate occasion of interaction” (p. viii). In other words, he is interested in how microsociological encounters, such as a student meeting with a guidance counselor at a community college, translate into patterns of inequality across many situations, for example many students meeting with counselors. Erickson examined the content and the form of these interviews to theorize their outcomes. He asked how interactions with gatekeepers determine access to resources. For example, was the student allowed to register for the classes requested? Erickson is also interested in how patterns of inequality within society tend to serve as the context for such encounters. For example, a student may be dodging the draft, as is the case in one of Erickson’s studies, and this unstated social fact may be understood between student and counselor and can shape the meaning of their interaction. Erickson has refined his use of transcription methods beyond that of his pathbreaking book, The Counselor as Gatekeeper (Erickson & Shultz, 1982). The transcriptions in this book are far more elegant Talk and Social Theory: Ecologies of

The Company They Keep and the Way They Look

Abstract: fluence of peer groups interacts with barriers in the social opportunity structure that students encounter based on class, gender, and perceptions of skin color and race. Gibson et al.’s School Connections, which grew out of a conference on U.S. Mexican students and academic outcomes, identifies peers and schools as socialization agents that are instrumental in fostering a sense of belonging in Mexican-origin youth to encourage sustained academic achievement while “affirming the identity and value” of those students (p. 12). Fergus’s Skin Color and Identity Formation studies the influence of external others— peers as well as school teachers and administrators—on the ethnic identity development of Mexican and Puerto Rican youth. In Fergus’s research, the influence of external others comes primarily from their perceptions of the Mexican and Puerto Rican youth’s skin color and ethnicity; the book demonstrates the moderating effect of skin color on the students’ academic orientation. Hence both books address a limitation in researchers’ knowledge of how ethnic identity and peer-group affiliation affect students’ perceptions of opportunity and their educational trajectories.

C’mon, Tell Me. . . . Does School Ethnography Really Matter?

Abstract: rich description of the setting and events in which some intended (or unintended) outcome occurred; and to understand “why or how it happened” requires examining the situation or context that aided in facilitation of the intended (or unintended) outcome. The National Research Council’s report offers various examples of studies that align with these kinds of inquiries. Although these include some of a more quantitative nature, the report, not surprisingly, points out that case study or ethnographic research describing localized educational settings is “particularly important when good information about the group or setting is nonexistent or scant” (Shavelson & Towne, 2002, p. 105). The report also highlights what it views as a vitally important, yet underfunded, kind of research that is situated in context: implementation research, or a “genre of research that examines the ways that the structural elements of school settings interact with efforts to improve instruction” (p. 125). These recommendations suggest that in spite of the current brouhaha on locating what kinds of programs work best for students, there remains a need to examine why and how certain things work (or do not work) in the context of schooling. Certainly, the recognition that situated contexts, identities, and meanings operate and exist within any teaching and learning environment implies that it is not adequate, or maybe even possible, to simply locate and implement an effective program or method. We should not forget that education research remains a complex undertaking because of its reliance on context and interactions (Berliner, 2002). The two books reviewed here recognize the important role that context plays in the schooling process. In Up Against Whiteness: Race, School, and Immigrant Youth, Stacey J. Lee (2005) explores how firstand secondgeneration Hmong American youth create Up Against Whiteness: Race, School, and

Having an Identity and Standing for a Mission: Curing Racism

Abstract: Editor Woody Klein is primarily a journalist, who first met Clark in 1964 when the latter sought media support in efforts to retain control of the dispersal and use of substantial federal funds directed to Harlem Youth Opportunities Unlimited (the organization’s 1964 HARYOU Report was the basis for Dark Ghetto). Klein has exhaustively read and catalogued Clark’s writings, producing a volume that obviously celebrates Clark’s life and work (the foreword is written by Clark’s friend John Hope Franklin) and potentially introduces new scholars to their depth and scope. Clark’s writings are grouped into three sections: “I. The Roots of Racism”; “II. The Continuing Search for Social Justice”; and “III. Race Relations: The Ongoing Struggle.” The names of the commentators (26 men, 4 women) on the writings in each of these sections read like a contemporary Who’s Who in academic and activist circles. In Section I, for example, they include Marian Wright Edelman, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Paul Robeson Jr., Cornel West, Lawrence Plotkin, Roger Wilkens, and Alvin F. Poussaint. Section III concludes with “Afterword: An Academician and Activist,” by Clark’s only son, Hilton B. Clark. Nine appendixes typically present full drafts of particularly important papers, such as “Appendix to Appellant’s Briefs—The Effects of Segregation and the Consequences of Desegregation: A Social Science Statement by Kenneth B. Clark, Principal Author” (Appendix 3). I used several of the appended papers in my graduate class Foundations of Urban Education when we discussed the contemporary status of school desegregation 50 years after Brown v. Board of Education. It was truly wonderful to have this material in one convenient volume, together with thorough citation documentation, useful Toward Humanity and Justice: The Writ-

Advancing the Conversation: The Roles of Discussants, Session Chairs, and Audience Members at AERA’s Annual Meeting

Abstract: The value of an academic conference lies in its ability to engage attendees in ongoing scholarly conversations. Such engagement depends on presentations that are intellectually sound and effectively delivered, but it also requires thoughtful participation by discussants, session chairs, and audience members. Shared understanding of the responsibilities that accompany these roles would help advance the conversation of educational scholarship. By adhering to a few simple principles, participants at AERA’s annual meeting could better ensure that the conference lives up to its potential for promoting meaningful dialogue.