This thesis explores the implications of a critical realist perspective for the field of education. Areas of consonance and divergence between two traditions of critical realism which have previously not referenced each other are outlined. It is argued that both theological critical realism and “Bhaskarian” critical realism are consonant in terms of their base tenets, and support the concept of a postfoundational, dialectical, stratified and alethic model of truth.The implications of this model and the potential of other critical realist doctrines for education are then examined. It is argued that the combination of critical realism’s epistemological relativism and ontological realism allows it to steer a course between the extremes of other dominant positions, which are ultimately susceptible to either the foundationalism of positivism, or the regression of idealism.It is suggested that critical realism is uniquely positioned to provide an antidote to the problems besetting contemporary educational research – especially in instances where modern and postmodern influences are involved in a recalcitrant, self-sustaining conflict. The postfoundationalist doctrines of critical realism enable it to appropriate deconstructionist research methods, but deploy them from within a realist framework. The implications of a critical realist perspective also go beyond educational research, indicating a conception of education as an emancipatory enterprise. By virtue of its evolutionary, stratified model of human rationality, critical realism raises significant challenges to dominant views of pedagogy and praxis in education. Given its concern with absenting constraints upon human freedom, it is claimed that critical realism reveals the real task of education as facilitating the emergent rationality of students towards emancipation. In light of this emancipatory mission, the possible contribution of critical realism to the field of education is too significant to ignore.

This thesis explores the implications of a critical realist perspective for the field of education. Areas of consonance and divergence between two traditions of critical realism which have previously not referenced each other are outlined. It is argued that both theological critical realism and “Bhaskarian” critical realism are consonant in terms of their base tenets, and support the concept of a postfoundational, dialectical, stratified and alethic model of truth.The implications of this model and the potential of other critical realist doctrines for education are then examined. It is argued that the combination of critical realism’s epistemological relativism and ontological realism allows it to steer a course between the extremes of other dominant positions, which are ultimately susceptible to either the foundationalism of positivism, or the regression of idealism.It is suggested that critical realism is uniquely positioned to provide an antidote to the problems besetting contemporary educational research – especially in instances where modern and postmodern influences are involved in a recalcitrant, self-sustaining conflict. The postfoundationalist doctrines of critical realism enable it to appropriate deconstructionist research methods, but deploy them from within a realist framework. The implications of a critical realist perspective also go beyond educational research, indicating a conception of education as an emancipatory enterprise. By virtue of its evolutionary, stratified model of human rationality, critical realism raises significant challenges to dominant views of pedagogy and praxis in education. Given its concern with absenting constraints upon human freedom, it is claimed that critical realism reveals the real task of education as facilitating the emergent rationality of students towards emancipation. In light of this emancipatory mission, the possible contribution of critical realism to the field of education is too significant to ignore.

Thesis (M.S. in Physics)--Naval Postgraduate School, January 1964. / Thesis Advisor(s): Hawns, William W. "January 1964." Description based on title screen as viewed on June 2, 2010 DTIC Descriptor(s): (Neutron Flux), (Research Reactors, Measurement, Neutron Activation, Reactor Lattice Parameters, Reactor Control, Power, Reactor Operation, Reactor Power Density, Scintillation Counters, Foils (Materials), Gold, Gamma Rays, Nuclear Radiation Spectrometers, Indium, Monitors, Errors, Probability, Statistical Analysis. DTIC Identifier(s): AGN-201 Reactors. Includes bibliographical references (p. 20). Also available in print.

abstract: A researcher reflects using a close reading of interview transcripts and description to share what happened while participating in multiple roles in a larger ethnographic study of the acculturation process of deaf students in kindergarten classrooms in three countries. The course of this paper will focus on three instances that took place in Japan and America. The analysis of these examples will bring to light the concept of taking on multiple roles, including graduate research assistant, interpreter, cultural mediator, and sociolinguistic consultant within a research project serving to uncover challenging personal and professional dilemmas and crossing boundaries; the dual roles, interpreter and researcher being the primary focus. This analysis results in a brief look at a thought provoking, yet evolving task of the researcher/interpreter. Maintaining multiple roles in the study the researcher is able to potentially identify and contribute "hidden" knowledge that may have been overlooked by other members of the research team. Balancing these different roles become key implications when interpreting practice, ethical boundaries, and participant research at times the lines of separation are blurred. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. Educational Leadership and Policy Studies 2011

abstract: The present study is a narrative representation of two individuals - one, a prison abolitionist living in the Phoenix area and, the other, myself as a writer and scholar - and their development of, negotiations with, desires for, and problematic performances of critical dispositions within the contemporary social order. In initiating this research, I framed my process as an exploration of the ways in which people who commit themselves to organized counter-hegemonic movements have developed critical dispositions despite their immersion in the normative discourse of American public schools and the relentless public pedagogies of neoliberal subjectivity and psyche. In essence, I wondered how people had gained both the capacity to perceive - however fleetingly - an outside to doxic structuration and, more difficult yet, to sacrifice the psychic comfort these structures promise for the risky work of creating a more just social order. Via psychoanalytic understandings of identity and desire, these stories explore and represent the primordial learning, experiences, and traumas that guided my informants to resist or reject dominant ontological narratives and normative cultural scripts in order to explore and maintain space - albeit exilic - for their own axiological and ethical development and, ultimately, to take up positions of active, educative resistance. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Curriculum and Instruction 2012

Behavioral data are frequently plagued with highly intercorrelated variables. Collinearity is an indication of insufficient information in the model or in the data. It, therefore, contributes to the unreliability of the estimated coefficients. One result of collinearity is that regression weights derived in one sample may lead to poor prediction in another model. One technique which was developed to deal with highly intercorrelated independent variables is ridge regression. It was first proposed by Hoerl and Kennard in 1970 as a method which would allow the data analyst to both stabilize his estimates and improve upon his squared error loss. The problem of this study was the application of ridge regression in the analysis of data resulting from educational research.

The aim of the work is to accomplish the social-pedagogical research in the area of skiing and snowboarding among children and adolescents in South Bohemia. The first part concentrates on history and equipment of both winter sports. The practical part in the beginning of this work is focused on the selection of appropriate research methods to ensure the reliability of the investigation. This is followed by a selection of a representative of the population who support the validity of the survey and data collection. The focus of the work is based on evaluation of the data obtained, since it can be used in schools when planning winter courses. Analysis and interpretation of the findings of the research not only reveals the real interest in the sport, but is expected to be used in the planning of school activities.

abstract: Jazz continues, into its second century, as one of the most important musics taught in public middle and high schools. Even so, research related to how students learn, especially in their earliest interactions with jazz culture, is limited. Weaving together interviews and observations of junior and senior high school jazz players and teachers, private studio instructors, current university students majoring in jazz, and university and college jazz faculty, I developed a composite sketch of a secondary school student learning to play jazz. Using arts-based educational research methods, including the use of narrative inquiry and literary non-fiction, the status of current jazz education and the experiences by novice jazz learners is explored. What emerges is a complex story of students and teachers negotiating the landscape of jazz in and out of early twenty-first century public schools. Suggestions for enhancing jazz experiences for all stakeholders follow, focusing on access and the preparation of future jazz teachers. / Dissertation/Thesis / D.M.A. Music Education 2013

abstract: The purpose of this survey study was to collect data from pre-K-12 educators in the U.S. regarding their perceptions of the purpose, conceptions, use, impact, and results of educational research. The survey tool was based on existing questionnaires and case studies in the literature, as well as newly developed items. 3,908 educators in a database developed over 10+ years at the world's largest education company were sent a recruiting email; 400 elementary and secondary teachers in the final sample completed the online survey containing 48 questions over a three-week deployment period in the spring of 2013. Results indicated that overall teachers believe educational research is important, that the most important purpose of research is to increase effectiveness of classroom practice, yet research is not frequently sought out during the course of practice. Teachers perceive results in research journals as the most trustworthy yet also perceive research journals the most difficult to access (relying second-most often for research via in-service trainings). These findings have implications for teachers, administrators, policy-makers, and researchers. Educational researchers should seek to address both the theoretical and the applied aspects of learning. Professional development must make explicit links between research findings and classroom strategies and tactics, and research must be made more readily available to those who are not currently seeking additional credentialing, and therefore do not individually have access to scholarly literature. Further research is needed to expand the survey sample and refine the survey instrument. Similar research with administrators in pre-K-20 settings as well as in-depth interviews would serve to investigate the "why" of many findings. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Educational Technology 2013

Nesta pesquisa, realizou-se um estudo das trajetórias escolares e profissionais de pesquisadores em educação e das condições de produção dos trabalhos tomados como estudos em sala de aulas. Por meio de entrevistas com foco nas histórias de vida escolar de dez (10) pesquisadores, entre eles, seis (6) pesquisadores da Faculdade de Educação da Universidade de São Paulo (FE-USP) e quatro (4) da Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo (PUC-SP), optou-se por pesquisadores que defenderam teses ou dissertações cujo lócus de investigação recaia sobre a sala de aula das séries inicias na década de 1989-99. Este recorte pesquisadores que defendera pesquisas sobre a sala de aula obedeceu, de certo modo, ao princípio de continuar pesquisado o mesmo objeto de estudo do mestrado, principalmente no que tange as questões que não foram possíveis de serem tratadas naquele momento como: a destinação dada às pesquisas, seu impacto na sala de aula e no próprio campo pedagógico e, sobretudo, as condições em que essas pesquisas foram produzidas. Tendo como referencial teórico os trabalhos de autores como Jean Paul Sartre, Pierre Bourdieu, Roland Barthes, Paul Thompson, António Nóvoa, Franco Ferrarotti, Bernard Charlot, Jose Mario Azanha, entre outros, buscou-se levantar aspectos do campo pedagógico e do campo científico por um viés até então intocado: as condições de produção da pesquisa educacional do ponto de vista do próprio pesquisador. Observou-se neste estudo que a pesquisa e o ensino podem ser campos dialeticamente complementares, já que ambos fazem parte do processo de construção do conhecimento, pois se a atividade de ensino carece de pesquisa, boa parte da pesquisa em educação baseia-se na experiência educativa. Com isso, a articulação pesquisa e ensino inserida em projetos de parcerias entre Escolas Básicas e Universidades possibilitam a troca de saberes entre as duas dimensões. Do mesmo modo, entende-se que um trabalho de reorganização do campo de pesquisa educacional com o objetivo de pouco a pouco construir uma identidade nesse campo, seja capaz de conduzir a educação a tornar-se uma área de produção de conhecimentos de fato mais autônoma, sem, contudo, abandonar as dimensões práticas e políticas sobre as quais diferentes ciências humanas e sociais produzem conhecimentos. Certamente os efeitos desse movimento incidirão sobre as práticas escolares, contribuindo para aperfeiçoá-las. / This search accomplish a study of the scholar and professional way of educational researchers as well the conditions in which classroom studies has been produced, though life history interviews of ten (10) researches, among then, six (6) form the Faculdade de Educação da Universidade de São Paulo (FE-USP) and four (4) from the Pontifícia Universidade Católica de f São Paulo. We selected researchers who has defended a thesis or dissertations between 1989 and 1999 and for whom the investigation place was the classroom of the initial grades. This frame researchers who has defended searches about the classroom has obeyed, in a certain way, the purpose to continue researching the same object of my Mastership, specially, concerning questions which could not be handled on that moment, such as the searches destinations, its impact on the classroom so as on the pedagogic field and, above all, the conditions in which theses searches has been produced. Having as a theoretical reference the work of authors as such Jean Paul Sartre, Pierre Bourdieu, Roland Barthes, Paul Thompson, António Nóvoa, Franco Ferrarotti, Bernard Charlot, Jose Mario Azanha, among others, we sought bring up aspects on the pedagogic and scientific field through a path which has been released untouched: the conditions of the production of educational search by the researchers own point of view. We have observed on this study that research and teaching can be dialectical complementary fields, since both are part of the knowledge construction process, therefore, if teaching requires search, a good part of the searches are based on the teaching experience. Herewith the research and teaching articulation introduced in Elementary School and University partnership projects enable the exchange of knowledge between theses two dimension. As well as, an educational field reorganization with the purpose of construct little by little an identity on this field which is capable to conduce the education to become a knowledge area really more independent, without, however, abandon the practice and politic dimension about different human and social science produce knowledge. Surely this movement effects will fall upon the school practices, cooperating for its improvement.