What We Talk about When We Talk about Love: A Duoethnographic Exploration of the Dissertation Relationship

In the aftermath and mop-up following a successful dissertation defense, an unintended and unexpected data source remained unexplored and unanalyzed: 32 audio-recorded discussions and work sessions documenting the processes, approaches, and decisions made by a dissertation director and his doctoral candidate. What might those conversations reveal about the dissertation relationship? Taking a page from Raymond Carver’s short story, “What We Talk about When We Talk about Love,” we wondered what we might have been talking about when we were talking about dissertation writing. Inspired and shaped by Norris, Sawyer, and Lund’s (2012. Duoethnography: Dialogic methods for social, health, and educational research. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press.) duoethnographic methods, this study provides opportunity for us to not just look back on the journey, but pushes us into the messiness of “recalling and reconceptualizing” (p. 10). As we each “become the foil for the Other, challenging the Other to reflect on their own life in a deeper, more relational, and authentic manner” (Norris et al., 2012, p. 10) we also interrogate and trouble our own simplistic categories of analysis

When does the action start and finish? Making the case for an ethnographic action research in educational research

This paper explores how ethnographic and action research methodologies can be justifiably combined to create a new methodological approach in educational research. It draws on existing examples in both educational research and development studies that have discussed the use of ethnography and action research in specific projects. Interpretations of ethnography and action research are developed that aim to minimise the epistemological differences between them. The paper also contextualises an ‘ethnographic action research’ approach with reference to an example of the author’s research into participation in three ‘reception’ (first year of schooling) classes in the United Kingdom. It is argued that research into the theme of participation in early years education, using participative methods, was particularly suitable for this new methodological approach

The purpose of mess in action research: building rigour though a messy turn

Mess and rigour might appear to be strange bedfellows. This paper argues that the purpose of mess is to facilitate a turn towards new constructions of knowing that lead to transformation in practice (an action turn). Engaging in action research - research that can disturb both individual and communally held notions of knowledge for practice - will be messy. Investigations into the 'messy area', the interface between the known and the nearly known, between knowledge in use and tacit knowledge as yet to be useful, reveal the 'messy area' as a vital element for seeing, disrupting, analysing, learning, knowing and changing. It is the place where long-held views shaped by professional knowledge, practical judgement, experience and intuition are seen through other lenses. It is here that reframing takes place and new knowing, which has both theoretical and practical significance, arises: a 'messy turn' takes place

Subjectivation and performative politics—Butler thinking Althusser and Foucault: intelligibility, agency and the raced-nationed-religioned subjects of education

Judith Butler is perhaps best known for her take-up of the debate between Derrida and Austin over the function of the performative and her subsequent suggestion that the subject be understood as performatively constituted. Another important but less often noted move within Butler‘s consideration of the processes through which the subject is constituted is her thinking between Althusser‘s notion of subjection and Foucault‘s notion of subjectivation. In this paper, I explore Butler‘s understanding of processes of subjectivation; examine the relationship between subjectivation and the performative suggested in and by Butler‘s work, and consider how the performative is implicated in processes of subjectivation – in =who‘ the subject is, or might be, subjectivated as. Finally, I examine the usefulness of understanding the subjectivating effects of discourse for education, in particular for educationalists concerned to make better sense of and interrupt educational inequalities. In doing this I offer a reading of an episode of ethnographic data generated in an Australian high School. I suggest that it is through subjectivating processes of the sort that Butler helps us to understand that some students are rendered subjects inside the educational endeavour, and others are rendered outside this endeavour or, indeed, outside student-hood

Reviewing research evidence and the case of participation in sport and physical recreation by black and minority ethnic communities

The paper addresses the implications of using the process of systematic review in the many areas of leisure where there is a dearth of material that would be admitted into conventional Cochrane Reviews. This raises important questions about what constitutes legitimate knowledge, questions that are of critical import not just to leisure scholars, but to the formulation of policy. The search for certainty in an area that lacks conceptual consensus results in an epistemological imperialism that takes a geocentric form. While clearly, there is a need for good research design whatever the style of research, we contend that the wholesale rejection of insightful research is profligate and foolhardy. A mechanism has to be found to capitalise on good quality research of whatever form. In that search, we draw upon our experience of conducting a review of the material available on participation in sport and physical recreation by people from Black and minority ethnic groups. The paper concludes with a proposal for a more productive review process that makes better use of the full panoply of good quality research available. © 2012 © 2012 Taylor & Francis

Opportunities From the Digital Revolution: Implications for Researching, Publishing, and Consuming Qualitative Research

In the 1990s, the term 'online' research emerged as a new and vibrant suite of methods, focused on exploitation of sources not collected by traditional social science methods. Today, at least one part of the research life cycle is likely to be carried out 'online,' from data collection through to publishing. In this article, we seek to understand emergent modes of doing and reporting qualitative research 'online.' With a greater freedom now to term oneself a 'researcher,' what opportunities and problems do working with online data sources bring? We explore implications of emerging requirements to submit supporting data for social science journal articles and question whether these demands might disrupt the very nature of and identity of qualitative research. Finally, we examine more recent forms of publishing and communicating research that support outputs where data play an integral role in elucidating context and enhancing the reading experience

Embodied Discourses of Literacy in the Lives of Two Preservice Teachers

This study examines the emerging teacher literacy identities of Ian and A.J., two preservice teachers in a graduate teacher education program in the United States. Using a poststructural feminisms theoretical framework, the study illustrates the embodiment of literacy pedagogy discourses in relation to the literacy courses’ discourse of comprehensive literacy and the literacy biographical discourses of Ian and A.J. The results of this study indicate the need to deconstruct how the discourse of comprehensive literacy limits how we, as literacy teacher educators, position, hear and respond to our preservice teachers and suggests the need for differentiation in our teacher education literacy courses

Variations in palpal ornamentation of Anopheles fluviatilis species T and U (Diptera: Culicidae) and their taxonomic consequence

64-68Anopheles fluviatilis sensu lato James is a highly efficient malaria vector in Indian subcontinent and Iran which is comprised of at least four sibling species provisionally designated as species S, T, U and V. An important morphological characteristic for differentiation of this species complex from other closely related anopheline species complex, the Minimus Complex, is the ratio of length of subapical pale band to dark band intervening apical and subapical pale bands on the maxillary palps of female mosquito. Here, we report variation in the subapical pale band in An. fluviatilis, especially in species U, to the extent that palps of some specimens resemble members of Minimus Complex, inferring that palpal ornamentation may not be reliable characteristics for identification of An. fluviatilis. Taxonomic consequence of such variation is discussed

The politics of the teaching of reading

Historically, political debates have broken out over how to teach reading in primary schools and infant classrooms. These debates and “reading wars” have often resulted from public concerns and media reportage of a fall in reading standards. They also reflect the importance placed on learning to read by parents, teachers, employers, and politicians. Public and media-driven controversies over the teaching of reading have resulted in intense public and professional debates over which specific methods and materials to use with beginning readers and with children who have reading difficulties. Recently, such debates have led to a renewed emphasis on reading proficiency and “standardized” approaches to teaching reading and engaging with literacy. The universal acceptance of the importance of learning to read has also led to vested interests in specific methods, reading programmes, and early literacy assessments amongst professional, business, commercial, and parental lobbying groups. This article traces these debates and the resulting growing support for a quantitative reductionist approach to early-reading programmes