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The primary question regarding prescriptive appropriateness is a difficult one to answer for the qualitative researcher. While there are certainly qualitative researchers who have offered prescriptive protocols to better define and describe the terrain of qualitative research design and there are qualitative researchers who offer research conclusions that might be considered prescriptive by the reader, the nature of qualitative research tends to avoid the prescriptive statement in the research findings. Instead, a transparent process of research design, theoretical framework application or construction, participant population/sample identification, and data collection/analysis are revealed throughout the research manuscript leading not to prescriptive findings but rather to asserted outcomes that are carefully communicated to the reader within the context of the research design and experience.

The study of young adult literature (YAL) as both an art form and teaching tool is in its infancy. Barely 50 years old, this emerging genre began to establish a presence in the canon of both classical and popular literature. As a developing field of inquiry, however, YAL struggles for legitimacy and prestige. The purpose of this article is to issue a call to educational researchers to shift the focus of current YAL research from teaching the content (text analysis research) to that of student learning in the classroom (empirical research). Doing so would increase the legitimacy and influence of the genre and establish its jurisdiction within the educational research arena as a valuable and viable subject worthy of investigation.

This study compared qualitative research results obtained by manual constant comparative analysis with results obtained by computer software analysis of the same data. An investigated about issues of trustworthiness and accuracy ensued. Results indicated that the inductive constant comparative data analysis generated 51 codes and two coding levels of increasing specificity, and the deductive Tropes computer software analysis generated 728 codes and six coding levels of increasing specificity. The constant comparative data analysis results confirmed previous research, but were restricted in scope by human cognitive limits and dataset size. The computer software enabled data analysis and presentation in much more depth, but required much more knowledge about the phenomenon being investigated to facilitate accurate interpretation of results. (Contains 6 tables and 1 figure.)

Educational psychology as a field of study has encountered a lack of distinction by overlapping with other fields of study or disciplines. Consequently, educational psychology continues to have difficulty claiming jurisdiction over bodies of research knowledge and has been encroached upon by other more crystallized disciplines. The purpose of this study is to examine the research literature published across top-ranked educational psychology journals to identify the common ground and current trends in research content and to identify those areas that can be reclaimed by the discipline as its own. Overall, 758 articles published in six journals from January 2003 through December 2007 were included in this study. A combination of statistics-based and linguistics-based methods were used to determine how frequently terms occur in the data and establishing a semantic network which created a probabilistic analysis of the co-occurrence of terms resulting in a constellation of terms showing the relationship and relative importance of the categories of terms. The results showed a consistency of research categories suggesting that in spite of reports to the contrary, there is a collective agreement among educational psychologists demonstrated by the empirical research in the field.

Using a 3x3 MANOVA (SES and Metropolitan Status), this study examines the influence of socio-economic status (SES) in combination with Metropolitan Status (urban, suburban, and rural) on the college selection process of high school seniors. This study finds that whereas high school students value cost, institutional quality, institutional characteristics and college culture, these values vary by the interaction between SES and Metropolitan Status.

Action research in education has gained increasing attention in the past 20 years. It is viewed as a practical yet systematic research method that enables teachers to investigate their own teaching and their students' learning. However, the ethical issues unique to this form of insider research have received less attention. Drawing on several professional associations' principles for research practice, the authors identify a series of potential ethical issues inherent in action research in K-12 schools and the corresponding difficulties that action researchers encounter with the policies and procedures of institutional review boards. The authors conclude with recommendations for future practice addressed to three groups: institutional review boards, K-12 school professionals and teacher educators, and national professional and representative organizations. (Contains 4 notes.)

Uses Andrew Abbott's sociological analysis of the professionalization process and the legal term "jurisdiction" to explore the legitimacy of the teaching profession. Discusses professional jurisdiction, knowledge jurisdiction, and social jurisdiction. Offers recommendations for universities to gain jurisdiction and legitimacy in the education of teachers. (PKP)

The Urban Network for the Improvement of Teacher Education emphasizes that teachers must be specifically prepared for teaching in urban settings and must understand that urban education is very unique. It views urban education as a component of complex communities, highlighting four areas for reform: the culture of colleges, instructional quality, programs for preparing teachers for urban contexts, and working relationships with elementary and secondary schools. (SM)

Quality feedback to teacher candidates about performance and progress is an essential assessment component of teacher education programs that can lead to candidate professional growth. This study (1) examines the quality of actual feedback from university supervisors to teacher candidates during field experiences and (2) examines how supervisor characteristics of experience and content area may relate to feedback. Results showed a lack of negative and constructive feedback and that supervisor background and years of experience affected feedback quality. Findings suggest a need for focused preparation of university supervisors and suggest additional areas for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]