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Ross, Karen. Women, Politics, Media: Uneasy Relations in Comparative Perspective. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, 2002. Pp. x, 222. ISBN 1-57273-397-7 (hb.) $49.50; 1-57273-398-5 (pb.) $23.95. As women increased their numbers [...]

We are in an era that calls for increasing "training" in educational research methodologies. When the National Research Council (2004) calls for training in educational research that is "rigorous" and "relevant," the focus strongly emphasizes WHAT should be taught instead of WHO is being engaged in the learning. Similarly, most of the research on teaching educational inquiry explores the "what" and not the "who" of the learning. In contrast, we explore conceptualizations of "research" as expressed by graduate students in a research methodology course, as well as the way that student narratives illustrate their own identity claims in relation to research. We develop the analytical concept of "pragmatic fissures" to explain the tension often present between the way students conceptualize research and the way they perceive themselves in relation to the research process. We suggest that these pragmatic fissures provide an opportunity for expanding pedagogical approaches to course delivery, as well as approaches to methodology textbook design. In the spirit of post-perspectives aimed at challenging the "methods" approach to research learning (St. Pierre, 2014), we welcome an opportunity for thinking about research instruction as more locally and organically connected to the lived experiences and conceptual make-up of students engaged in the learning process.

More than ever, the capacity to engage in discourse addressing challenges we face as a nation is necessary. Young people must be able to navigate complex relationships in a diverse society. Yet, student capacity for constructive engagement across difference in classrooms is limited, and teachers lack the capacity to support students in dialogic communication, openness to difference, or other key peace education skills. This study thus reports on Civic Conversations, a professional development program for teachers modeling dialogic teaching in classroom contexts. Drawing upon data from multiple cohorts, the study shows that this program helps teachers develop a dialogic stance: belief in the value of dialogue as a foundational approach to teaching. Data suggests that the dialogic structure of the professional development program played an especially important role in facilitating teacher development of this belief and in enabling teachers to understand how dialogue allows them to build stronger classroom community while stepping back from being the center of focus in the classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, we explore the perceived roles of action research networks during times of crisis and then consider our own experiences grappling with our responsibilities as members of the Action Research Network of the Americas (ARNA) in highlighting and building solidarity through its Knowledge Democracy Initiative and Social Solidarity Project. To critically reflect on our work, we consider the usefulness of Gaventa's (1991) three strategies for knowledge democratization to action research networks in "perilous" times and the responsibility of action research scholars-advocates-activists-participants to anchor our work in an ethos of knowledge democracy. In conclusion, we issue a call to embrace critical, participatory forms of action research, and creative, new pathways for the work of knowledge democracy.

Across our combined 15 years of experience as methodologists and research methodology instructors, we have found that the concept of 'failure' is only a small portion of methodological literature and is similarly missing from scholarship on teaching and learning social science research methodology. We define failure in terms of our inability as researchers to reach the onto-epistemological ideals to which we aspire in our empirical fieldwork with others, both in terms of relationships formed with our research participants and our inability to overcome broader (institutional or socio-political) constraints. This reflexive position paper is an attempt to provide several tools that instructors of research methodology courses may use to teach students techniques for better understanding the causes of failure; to provide students opportunities for workshopping and discussing fieldwork "in the moment"; and to model transparency and openness in reporting failures as part of their writing and research dissemination. We draw on our own teaching experiences to provide examples of how to build structures that will support students as they prepare to deal with the failures that often occur in empirical inquiry. We then offer examples of what teaching about failure might look like within the frameworks of existing research methodology courses.

Ross, Karen. Gendered Media: Women, Men, and Identity Politics. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2010. Pp. viii, 203. ISBN 978-0-7425-5406-1 (cloth) $49.95. Gendered Media: Women, Men, and Identity [...]

In this article, we interrogate the concept of methodological 'failures' as they arise during fieldwork, in the process of collecting empirical data. We highlight how the techniques of validity horizon matrices and power analysis can be used as methodological tools to illustrate moments in the fieldwork process where these 'failures' occur and to illustrate what makes them 'failures' rather than just opportunities for learning. Drawing on examples from our own research, we use validity horizon matrices to suggest that 'failures' largely occur as a result of disagreements about backgrounded, implicit normative claims. We distinguish between 'failures' where communicative possibilities exist for negotiating norms and those where systemic constraints make critique impossible, though we acknowledge that in practice opportunities for negotiating power are limited.

Recognition of the value of a scientifically literate citizenry has driven American science education reform since the 1950s. We have seen some improvement in the comprehension of science facts in the past 10-20 years, but far less improvement in Americans' understanding of the nature of science. College science courses are ideal venues for promoting science literacy. However, in an effort to condense a complicated subject into a single semester, the nature of science is often lost amidst the facts presented in a freshman survey course, often the entirety of a non-science major's experience in science. We argue that an interdisciplinary approach that integrates the sciences and the humanities can attract non-science majors, increasing these students' exposure to scientific concepts by relating them to students' existing interests and knowledge. This fosters science literacy by teaching students that science is a process of human inquiry with a distinct methodology, instead of simply a litany of facts. We recommend that a successful interdisciplinary course should present an engaging topic with which students can identify, incorporate opportunities for student research, and offer site visits to working laboratories.

This article explores the approach to transformative education utilized by Sadaka Reut, a binational civil society organization in Israel that works with Jewish and Palestinian youth. I examine three central tools Sadaka Reut uses to achieve its goal of educating youth for social change: using personal experiences as the basis for discussion; emphasizing personal-structural links; and implementing uninational activities within a binational framework. I argue that though the organization's approach holds potential for appealing to a broad audience and for fostering transformation amongst participants, the strength of dominant discourses in Israeli society places significant constraints on Sadaka Reut's work and limits possibilities for widespread success.

In this article, I argue for the importance of conducting comparative studies of educational interventions implemented within the same sociopolitical environment. Taking into account both arguments for comparative research in education and recent calls for context-rich vertical case studies, I suggest that horizontal comparisons in a single environment provide a nuanced view of divergent programmatic approaches and outcomes and allow us to better understand the agency of actors in the educational realm. I draw on the concept of multilevel opportunity structure to explore the work of two encounter organizations in Israel bringing together Jewish and Palestinian youth--Peace Child Israel and Sadaka Reut--and explain why the responses of each organization to shifting political environments in the Israeli context over the past 30 years, especially post-2000, led to different outcomes in terms of organizational survival. My analysis demonstrates how methodological choices affect the potential for theory building in comparative education and points to the importance of examining educational initiatives at an organizational level in order to better understand the relationship between educational initiatives and the broader sociopolitical context.

This study aimed to understand the experiences of older women media professionals whose age and gender had prompted discriminatory behavior (gendered ageism) towards them by their line managers and/or employers. It draws on the testimonies provided by 24 women media professionals who self-identified as 'older' and who were interviewed for the work. All the participants had worked (and some still work) as journalists, presenters, producers or actors, and alongside diverse and routinised micro-aggressions, their experiences included having their contracts summarily terminated or not renewed, being manoeuvred out of front-of-camera roles, seen their career opportunities evaporate when they reached their 40s or even earlier, and been replaced by younger, 'fresher' women. However, some participants are fighting back by creating their own media and developing opportunities for other women to thrive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]