Researchers in the United States have frequently used non-experimental data, including annual student test scores, to estimate teacher value-added (TVA). Experimental studies have largely validated this approach within the US context. Similar data are increasingly available in England. However, differences in the school systems, the way in which students are allocated to schools and teachers, and assessment practices present distinctive challenges for validly estimating TVA in England. This paper reviews the key issues that arise when applying TVA models to English secondary schools, including non-random student and teacher allocation and measurement error in assessments. In response, it proposes a practical framework of six empirical validation checks to assess the robustness of TVA estimation. These checks - focused on internal consistency, replication of empirical findings from elsewhere, and falsification tests - offer researchers a means to critically assess the plausibility of their estimates and improve the credibility of future TVA studies in the English context.
This project explores the vernacular architectures and axiologies of youth who represent the Global Majority in a 3-week summer design-build programme. Through a visual ethnographic approach of the design-build programme hosted by a university in the Pacific Northwest, high school age youth opted into learning architectural design, carpentry, and metal work. Using photographic data, digital field notes, interview data and b-roll, I use a collage analysis and the concept of layering to interweave narrative, materiality, and representation across modalities to explain youth's cultural expressions through drawings, aesthetics, and built form. Youth designed pollinator villages embodying personal and ecological stories, revealing values of care, kinship, and community. Layering surfaces and meanings, this analysis offers insight into emergent cultural spatialities and the transformative potential of design education to better support youth's ongoing knowledge production as a process of facilitating relations.
This article reflects on the methodological process of compiling a specialized, digital corpora of extant texts about teachers - the Teachers in Conservative England Corpus (TCEC). In contrast to corpora used in previous, similar studies in the field, the TCEC was intended to be heterogeneous, evidencing a variety of contrasting views and perspectives on teachers and teaching. Texts included in the corpus were: media reports, school inspection reports, reflections on education by teachers and the general public, political speeches, responses to parliamentary inquiries, and academic and policy texts associated with teacher training provision. The paper discusses key decisions taken during the process of corpus construction, providing original and detailed insights into the process of constructing a heterogenous digitized collection of texts concerning teachers. Methodologically, the article rigorously reflects on the myriad of complex decisions which needed to be made during the process of building a digital repository of texts, emphasizing the human interventions, considerations and thought processes required throughout. Documenting such reflections is important and necessary, given increasing interest in the use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) in research and education.
Despite the growing prominence of partnering with children in educational research to influence educational policies and practices, autistic children's voices and influence for change remain a developing area. There is a growing recognition of autistic children as experts and influencers in their lived experiences, along with a call for their more authentic engagement in the research process as rights-holders. This requires a reconsideration of methodological approaches that are actively child-centric and involve researchers who can enact this imperative in their research. This paper argues that autistic children have legitimate claims to be research participants on their own terms, interrupting and creating new meanings within the intended research process. By drawing on examples from an ethnographic study with two autistic children in a New Zealand school, we demonstrate practices where the researcher challenges and is challenged by research with children who think, act, and learn in diverse ways. Results from research that is child-led and child-rights framed provide unique insights into the children's world. When researchers adopt reflexive and adaptive ethical data collection approaches for authentic engagement in the children's world, the children's views come through different spaces and influence in ways that counter a dominant narrative about autistic children.
This paper outlines a methodology for making an educational technology ready for being embedded in classrooms. It presents the theoretical orientation and methodological principles that informed the innovation process of the ROSA project (Robot-supported Education for Autistic Children): an interdisciplinary, complex and longitudinal research and innovation initiative involving autistic pupils, teachers, parents, innovators, technologists/developers, school managers and researchers from different disciplines. Underpinned by social learning theory, practical ethics, participatory design and co-creation theory, it was situated in a special school in Norway. Based on theoretical underpinnings and rigorous cross-disciplinary dialogues, five methodological principles emerged as preconditions for successful user-centred innovation: (1) iterative ethical reflection; (2) participation and co-creation; (3) dyadic systems convening; (4) learning from the practitioners and (5) learning from the autistic pupils. The paper discusses how these principles were implemented through a cyclical process of awareness, identification, reflection and action. The principles emphasized human interaction over technology-driven instruction and real-world applicability over theory- or interest-driven solutions. The paper makes a significant contribution to the empirical research on the methodology of innovation of robot-mediated education, and it provides guidance for researchers and policymakers on methodological principles for participatory and ethically responsible research and innovation in the field.
Body mapping is an arts-based method designed to foreground how people feel rather than what they think. Body mapping can support the surfacing of often unheard or otherwise inaccessible or suppressed experiences because meaning making is non-spoken as well as spoken. For marginalised groups, where power imbalances between the researchers and the researched may be considerable, body mapping is argued to be one way in which participants can contribute on their own terms. Autistic people report distinctive embodied subjectivities of the world, often due to sensory differences. Body mapping may be a method that is well suited to exploring these embodied subjectivities with autistic young people whose experiences tend to be marginalised or overlooked. Most body mapping research has focused on health-related topics with very little application in education or with autistic young people. This paper reports on the use of body mapping to explore school and transition experiences with 11 neurodivergent young people in the UK: 8 girls and 3 boys aged 11-17 years, nine with autism diagnoses. We evaluate our application of body mapping according to its potential for (1) exploring embodied awareness (2) enabling social justice and (3) supporting knowledge production and translation.
Due to the ontological distinctions that can be drawn between them, hermeneutic phenomenology and phenomenography, as approaches to researching inclusive education, may seem to be incompatible. Hermeneutic phenomenological researchers, for example, tend to be concerned with the investigation of pre-reflective lived experience, with the associated aim of academic enquiry being a 'return to the world which precedes knowledge' (Merleau-Ponty 1962, cited in van Manen, M., 2016. Phenomenology of practice. London: Routledge, 128). Phenomenographic research, in contrast, involves the elicitation of the variation of conceptions which are held in relation to a particular 'object of learning' (e.g. Marton, F., and Booth, S., 1997. Learning and awareness. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 161). Through a discussion of one particular study, which involved the construction and analysis of 42 'dilemma stories' from 19 experienced teachers, this paper demonstrates how a synthesis of both phenomenography and hermeneutic phenomenology can be coherent and valuable. This paper goes on to focus on one particular 'dilemma story' titled 'Should I be having this conversation about death?' to highlight how phenomenography, in particular, can be enriched by some of the typical features of hermeneutic phenomenological enquiry. Furthermore, it will be argued that valuing synergies between hermeneutic phenomenology and phenomenography has important implications for how we might approach the development of inclusive educators.
This transatlantic study investigates how doctoral students conceptualize and navigate positionality. With a significant proliferation of doctoral programmes internationally, and many enrolled students conducting research within their own personal or professional contexts, the need to explore how they address positionality is pressing. In this qualitative paper, we present findings gathered from doctoral students researching in the social justice field in Ireland and the United States of America. The students attended two Research in Progress Seminars (Session 1: n = 20; Session 2: n = 18), where they completed a number of pedagogical activities aimed at probing their experiences and their perceptions of each other's research. The findings evidence that doctoral students experience two central positionality dilemmas when conducting research as self-identified insiders. First, the proximity dilemma centres on how a researcher assimilates their personal experience with a topic into their research, without compromising their researcher credibility. Second, the power-empowerment dilemma centres on how a researcher can leverage current systems to bring about greater equity, without reinforcing inequities by researching within them in the first place. The paper concludes by endorsing continua approaches to positionality that are fluid, momentary and scalar, to support doctoral students in mitigating dilemmas arising from perceived insiderness.
This paper underscores the methodological affordances of using video data as a boundary object to foster expansive learning. Based on a study conducted in a school in the war-affected Northern province of Sri Lanka, we demonstrate how expansive learning was catalyzed by video elicitation practices embedded in the methodology, revealing underlying tensions. In research contexts that examine complex systems such as classrooms - where teachers, students and researchers share a bounded space yet occupy distinct roles - this approach offered strategies to deepen data analysis and interpretation, ultimately creating potential ways to disrupt problematic learning and teaching practices. We use cultural historical activity theory in conjunction with boundary crossing to describe how expansive learning was triggered, facilitated by video elicitationand generated granular, discursive and context-rich conversations among participants. Video data was recast from a static data source into one that catalyzed expansive learning and collaborative knowledge generation among participants, demonstrating the methodological affordances of video data as a medium for meaningful shifts in classroom practices.
This article introduces a novel methodological approach termed 'realist triadic interviews' which was used to explore pupils' experiences during COVID-19. Unlike traditional methods that treat multiple accounts separately, this approach incorporates pupils, parents and teachers in a single interview, facilitating real-time co-construction of narratives. This article examines how power dynamics and pre-existing relationships within these triads influence the generation of shared accounts, while still prioritizing the pupils' experiences. This approach enabled pupil-led accounts to be supported, elaborated and sometimes gently challenged by parents and teachers. The research demonstrates that this method supports a rich, nuanced understanding of student experiences, by adopting a middle-ground perspective between essentialist and social constructionist approaches. The findings highlight how participants collaboratively navigate consensus and disagreement, co-elaborating on memories and meanings. While acknowledging limitations, this article argues that realist triadic interviews offer an embedded form of triangulation, enhancing the credibility and depth of qualitative research, offering an alternative to post-hoc triangulation. Ultimately, the method has potential to provide valuable insights, broadening the qualitative research toolkit.
This study investigates how arts-based research methods can amplify the voices of global majority trainee teachers in England, using artworks as epistemic safe spaces. Traditional research paradigms often marginalize non-dominant perspectives, limiting authentic expression and knowledge creation. Across two three-hour workshops, self-identified global majority trainees produced personal artworks reflecting their experiences of belonging in their teacher training. These artworks enabled the participants to share personal, nuanced, intersectional narratives that challenge hegemonic norms. The methodology fostered agency and emotional safety, allowing participants to share complex lived experiences often silenced in conventional research, alongside engagement with a local secondary school to share their experiences of belonging and provide the potential for change beyond the research project.
This article introduces the M & uuml;ller-Lyer illusion as a pedagogical tool to support students in higher education research courses in understanding mixed and multi-methods research. The illusion presents two lines that appear to be different lengths to the eye but are in fact identical when measured. This serves as a metaphor: different methods offer distinct perspectives and combining them can reveal insights not accessible through a single method alone. Students often struggle with abstract methodological concepts such as ontology and epistemology because philosophically dense, technical language is needed to engage with those perspectives comprehensively. In response, this article offers a dialogic orientation - grounded in the idea that reality is constructed through the tension between perspectives and that knowledge emerges from this tension. This framing provides an accessible and intuitive foundation for methodological pluralism. The article offers both an intuitive, practical teaching tool and a philosophically coherent basis for mixed and multi-methods research.
While conducting research with teenage girls in Melbourne, Australia several 'ethically important moments' (Guillemin and Gillam) arose where the multiple aspects of researcher identity - teacher, feminist and PhD student - came into tension. This article outlines the multiple identities researchers can bring to a research project, specifically in education research settings. Through a case study of the ethically important moments, this paper outlines a model for qualitative research with young people in school settings that includes intentional teaching and activism. By planning for strategic settings, intentional interruption and responsive reciprocity, this article argues that researchers who want to maintain their ethical integrity while taking the opportunity to teach and do activism are able to do so.
Qualitative researchers have long used narrative inquiry to capture in-depth data. Interviews are often used in this approach as a suitable data collection method. This study recognises the challenges of interviews and their time-consuming nature in narrative inquiry. The target population, international PhD students, may face challenges in participating due to the long-term commitment typically required. Hence, this study designed an alternative approach to obtain in-depth and meaningful qualitative data. The alternative approach was named the email exchange method. It proved effective within this context, offering fresh perspectives on data collection in narrative inquiry. The approach was designed to reduce time-related stress for both participants and the researcher by minimising the burden of scheduling interviews and transcribing large volumes of data. It also aimed to create a less intimidating environment by allowing participants more time for reflection and removing the immediate pressure of speaking in front of an interviewer, although how this was experienced may vary. The paper argues that this approach may be less suitable for individuals who are not confident or comfortable with written communication. To address this limitation, audio-recorded responses and a wrap-up interview were incorporated as supplementary tools in the study.
Trauma-informed practice is gaining increasing prominence across a range of sectors, including education. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, trauma has been increasingly considered in higher education settings, yet this has rarely extended beyond consideration of teaching practice. Trauma also needs to be considered when planning and conducting research in the field of higher education. This conceptual paper therefore explores what trauma-informed research in higher education might look like and why this is important as part of ensuring that all higher education research is safe and inclusive. The paper reviews existing literature connecting trauma with higher education, then draws on published guidelines for trauma-informed research in other settings to propose a framework for trauma-informed research in higher education. The framework comprises seven guiding principles: (1) anticipate the likely presence of trauma-affected people without requiring disclosure; (2) ensure researchers have a foundational understanding of trauma; (3) imbue a trauma-informed perspective across existing methodologies and methods; (4) reconceptualise the researcher - participant relationship; (5) design research to maximize participant agency, safety, and wellbeing; (6) support researcher safety and wellbeing; and (7) attend to intersectionality. It is hoped that the framework presented in this paper will support increased use of trauma-informed approaches within higher education research.
