Review of Research in Education – serie

The rapid transformations of social, economic, and cultural worlds of learners in school and nonschool settings that we are facing today are reminiscent of the transformations that accompanied the industrial revolution at the turn of the 20th century. Like those at the turn of the 20th century, education researchers and their constituencies (e.g., students, teachers, community members, and policy makers) are faced with a series of questions: How are we to respond to the educational challenges of this new millennium? How do we engage with new forms of learning, the influence of new media on children's lives, changing community dynamics, and many long-standing and tenacious educational and social problems? And how can research and theory constructively and critically engage with the demands and imperatives of government educational and social policies?

In this book, the editors bring together an intergenerational group of researchers who represent both new and long-standing perspectives and debates on the shapes, definitions, and processes of learning in the context of global cultural and economic change.

Turning the question of "what works" in education on its head, Difference, Diversity, and Distinctiveness in Education and Learning, a volume of Review of Research in Education, digs into recent salient research that examines learning contexts within critical literacy, scientific literacy, and teacher education. Highlighting the importance of leveraging current research to explore ways in which education institutions (both K–12 and higher education) can structure positive learning environments for diverse students, this volume addresses elements in research that explore how diverse students learn in different and distinctive environments. Research topics include:

Drawing upon international research, Review of Research in Education, Volume 35 examines the interplay between youth cultures and educational practices. Although the articles describe youth practices across a range of settings, a central theme is how gender, class, race, and national identity mediate both adult perceptions of youth and youths' experiences of schooling.

Review of Research in Education (Volume 36) presents new research that explores the varied intersections between Education, Democracy, and the Public Good. It is intended to give readers a broader perspective on how the three constructs are interconnected and applied in the United States and in other countries around the world. By examining the theme in multiple contexts and through diverse lenses, the chapters provide a deeper understanding of the many ways that education and schools serve the "public good," where the "public good" is used throughout the volume as a unifying concept to express purposes beyond individual self-interest in order to encompass those that serve greater public purposes.

Review of Research in Education (Volume 37) explores the extraordinary pedagogies that teachers and educators have developed in recent years to address the needs of nondominant students and families served by public schools and institutions of higher learning. In this volume, extraordinary pedagogies are shown not to be about “best practices” or the most effective teaching methods for teaching to the learners’ needs, but rather to bring attention to how poverty, race, social class, and language interact with local practices in teaching and learning, and in the everyday lives of families, educators, children, and youth. By examining these broader sociocultural issues, this volume challenges recent attempts to refocus attention on learning outcomes without considering these larger issues. Transforming schooling is possible – but it requires extraordinary pedagogies.

Edited by Patricia Alexander (University of Maryland), Felice J. Levine (AERA), and William Tate (Washington University in St. Louis), this centennial volume of RRE takes a “retrospective, prospective” approach on a diverse range of education research topics spanning the last 100 years. While using historical trends as foundations for their chapters, the authors also look ahead to the most challenging issues and promising directions for the next century. The chapters contribute to cumulative knowledge, capture research developments and findings of sustained significance, and address research innovations anchored in their time or place, which could ultimately shape directions of scholarly promise and potential for the future. To bring conceptual cohesion to the volume, the editors nested the chapters in four thematic sections: (1) the Research Enterprise and the Doing of Education Research, (2) the Contexts of Education, (3) the Process of and Substance of Learning, (4) and the Changing Attention to Diversity and Difference.

The purpose of this volume is to contribute to educational research by presenting comprehensive and nuanced understandings of intersectional perspectives. Researchers working within an intersectional framework try to account for the dynamic and complex ways that race/ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, religion, citizenship, ability, and age shape individual identities and social life. We argue it is essential to overcome simplistic, static, one-dimensional, and additive approaches to educational research by expanding the use of analytical categories and engaging the multiplicities of people’s circumstances within and across teaching and learning settings. This volume is our attempt to open a space for analysis, dialogue, and reflection among scholars about intersectionality, and the possibilities of reimagining the research tools used to address the complex demographic, social, economic, and cultural transformations shaping education.  Ideally, this conversation will reach audiences outside of the academy.

Teacher Assessment and the Assessment of Students With Diverse Learning Needs

Edited by Jamal Abedi and Christian J. Faltis, both at University of California, Davis

Assessments play an integral role in instruction, placement, promotion and efforts to ensure that students and teachers receive the support they need for success.  At the same time, serious consequences can result if assessments are not constructed and used properly. If, for any reason, the assessment report results are not dependable due to unreliable or invalid tests, this can jeopardize the very population they were intended to serve. In Review of Research in Education (Volume 39), the authors bring awareness to specific considerations necessary in the use of high-stakes assessments, shed light on the decisions made based on the results of assessments and explore the implications of using high-stakes assessments for students with diverse learning needs. As the nation moves toward the development and implementation of a new generation of assessments, attention to teacher assessment and the assessment of students with diverse learning needs is of paramount importance.