Changing Classes tells the story of Willow Run, a small, poor, ethnically-mixed town in Michigan's rust belt, a community in turmoil over the announced closing of a nearby auto assembly plant. As teachers and administrators began to find ways to make schooling more relevant to working-class children, two large-scale school reform initiatives swept into town: the Governor's "market-place" reforms and the National Science Foundation's "state systemic initiative." Against the backdrop of a post-fordist economy, the author shows complex linkages at work as society structures the development of...

Entering the Circle addresses the practical and methodological aspects of research within the interpretive or hermeneutic perspective. It contains descriptions of exemplary interpretive research projects in psychology and closely allied fields. Offering insight into the range and subtleties of the methods of interpretive inquiry, this collection challenges the reader to question the assumptions behind more traditional research that aims, instead, to objectify human phenomena.

This volume offers a historical and critical analysis of the emerging field of the learning sciences, which takes an interdisciplinary approach to understanding and improving how children and adults learn. It features a wide range of authors, including established scholars who founded and guided the learning sciences through the initial turbulence of forming a new line of academic inquiry, as well as newcomers who are continuing to shape the field. This diversity allows for a broad yet selective perspective on what the learning sciences are, why they came to be, and how contributors conduct...

This updated and expanded edition is a unique examination of qualitative research in the social sciences, raising and answering the question of why we do this kind of investigation. Rather than providing instructions on how to conduct qualitative research, The Science of Qualitative Research explores the multiple roots of qualitative research - including phenomenology, hermeneutics, and critical theory - in order to diagnose the current state of the field and recommend an alternative. The author argues that much qualitative research today uses the mind-world dualism that is typical of...

This updated and expanded edition is a unique examination of qualitative research in the social sciences, raising and answering the question of why we do this kind of investigation. Rather than providing instructions on how to conduct qualitative research, The Science of Qualitative Research explores the multiple roots of qualitative research - including phenomenology, hermeneutics, and critical theory - in order to diagnose the current state of the field and recommend an alternative. The author argues that much qualitative research today uses the mind-world dualism that is typical of...