This edited volume brings together leading scholars from the fields of educational leadership and policy studies to discuss qualitative, quantitative, and mixed research methods in an accessible and pedagogically well-designed volume. Authors discuss ways in which various research methodologies and methods can productively be brought together to expand our current understanding of leadership issues and the contemporary policy context that surrounds them. Chapters provide both practical recommendations for using the methods discussed as well as suggestions for further reading.

Published for the American Educational Research Association by Routledge. The Handbook of Complementary Methods in Education Research is a successor volume to AERA's earlier and highly acclaimed editions of Complementary Methods for Research in Education. More than any book to date (including its predecessors), this new volume brings together the wide range of research methods used to study education and makes the logic of inquiry for each method clear and accessible. Each method is described in detail, including its history, its research design, the questions that it addresses, ways of using the method, and ways of analyzing and reporting outcomes. Key features of this indispensable book include the following: Foundations Section-Part I is unique among research books. Its three chapters examine common philosophical, epistemological, and ethical issues facing researchers from all traditions, and frames ways of understanding the similarities and differences among traditions. Together they provide a tripartite lens through which to view and compare all research methods. Comprehensive Coverage-Part II (the heart of the book) presents 35 chapters on research design and analysis. Each chapter includes a brief historical overview of the research tradition, examines the questions that it addresses, and presents an example of how the approach can be used. Programs of Research-Part III examines how research programs connected to eight specific lines of inquiry have evolved over time. These chapters examine phenomena such as classroom interaction; language research; issues of race, culture, and difference; policy analysis; program evaluation; student learning; and teacher education. Complementary Methods-As the title suggests, a central mission of this book is to explore the compatibility of different research methods. Which methods can be productively brought together and for what purposes? How and on what scale can they be made compatible and what phenomena are they best suited to explore? Flexibility-The chapters in Parts II and III are largely independent. Therefore, selected portions of the book can be used in courses devoted to specific research methods and perspectives or to particular areas of education. Likewise, established researchers interested in acquiring new techniques or greater expertise in a given methodology will find this an indispensable reference volume. This handbook is appropriate for any of the following audiences: faculty teaching and graduate students studying education research, education researchers and other scholars seeking an accessible overview of state-of-the-art knowledge about specific methods, policy analysts and other professionals needing to better understand research methods, and academic and research libraries serving these audiences.

Understanding Educational Leadership guides you through critical perspectives and approaches across the world, taking in the global north and south, and explores the ways in which educational leadership is currently understood, theorised, researched, modelled and practised. The book also covers contemporary issues including gender, sexual identity and race, as well as topics such as governance, performativity and corporatisation. It brings together evidence and ideas that illuminate the power structures and relations in educational leaders, leading and leadership and helps you to consider the impact on policy and practice, and to think about changes needed to mitigate the issues identified. The book showcases a wide range of theorists, including Bourdieu, Foucault and Fraser. Its impressive scope includes analyses of collectivist, neoliberal and historical influences on educational leadership. It explores forensically leadership styles, with an explicit focus on distributed, instructional, democratic, autocratic, laissez-faire and organisational forms. Carefully curated by the editors, the world-leading contributors draw on their wealth of knowledge about research and practice to provide you with an overview of educational leadership today, looking at global research, evidence, arguments and conceptualisations. Each chapter is written in an engaging and inspiring way, following a consistent approach to help you to develop your understanding in each of the areas covered. Full pedagogical features throughout include chapter summaries, key questions, case studies, questions for readers and further reading suggestions with questions on key texts. A companion website provides links to open-access outputs, research-project outcomes, and networking seminars, conferences with links to local, national and global events and connections.

This classic guide continues to be the leading Research Methods text that specifically deals with Educational Leadership and Management. The collection boasts an array of high-profile international expert contributors, covering a wide range of specialisms, emphasising the importance of the critically engaged practitioner. Accessible and user-friendly, this edition has been fully revised and updated to take full account of online research. It features new authors, more case studies and examples, and brand new chapters on: - research Design - grounded research - ethnography - discourse analysis - narrative / Life history - student voice Whether you are postgraduate, an academic, or a practitioner researcher, if you are investigating Research Methods, Leadership & Management or Educational Research, this is the book you will need.

While written for mastersÆ students in any Educational Leadership concentration, this is a core text for departments that teach action research as a primary research methodology or a supplemental text for those that place it in a range of research methods. The book provides a readable overview of the PAR process similar to professional learning communities in schools. Its design reaches out to visual learners as graphic elements guide graduate students through the research methods they need to successfully complete rigorous projects. The results of the original PAR study and continued work with educational leaders lead us to believe that this approach ultimately produces the results school leaders seek and appreciate. Key Features: o Clear process through both the PAR steps employing a research logic model throughout. This benefits the graduate student or educational leader by leading them to data driven outcomes that are valid, credible and reliableGraphic elements guide the reader through the process and aid the visual learner in keeping track of the concepts behind the theory. o Reflective questions precede each section. This increases the reflective practices and routines of the reader as appropriate to the PAR process. o Tasks, written for both groups and individuals, aid participatory teams in working towards consensus and strong research designs o Practitioner stories make the lessons real and ease the emotional unease that come from tackling research practices the first time. Intended Audience: This book represents the evolution of PAR from a soft science to a process appropriate for educators in todayÆs data driven environments or for graduate students whose thesis needs to pass the recommendations of professors steeped in positivist traditions.

Through this book, we seek to describe improvement science in action for educators, schools, districts, universities, and communities. This book is a venue for improvement research in education focused on the application of improvement science in educational settings. Improvement science requires extensive engagement in rigorous work to implement sustainable change at a systemic level. As the editors of this volume for the Leadership in School Improvement SIG book series, we hope that these chapters, written by researchers, practitioners, and leaders engaged in improvement science will help others begin their own improvement processes to achieve desired, equitable, and sustainable results for student success. ENDORSEMENTS: "Continuous Improvement: A Leadership Process for School Improvement brings together an impressive group of fieldleading improvement scholars, with deep connections to educational practice, to provide a powerful vision for what equity-centered improvement science looks like in action. The stories of improvement, partnership, and critical enabling conditions provide theoretically sound and practically useful guidance for anyone seeking to transform education organizations in service of more equitable learning opportunities for students." — Jennifer Lin Russell, Vanderbilt Peabody College "This is a moment of empowerment in education, with movements for social justice and continuous improvement providing motivations and methods to interrogate, disrupt, and rebuild education systems to support the holistic development of all students. This essential book provides compelling accounts of what it looks like -- and what is possible -- when educational professionals, researchers, and other stakeholders come together to seize this moment." — Donald Peurach, University of Michigan’s School of Education and Carnegie Foundation

The field of education policy research is a dense, crowded space owing to its complicated relationship to different intellectual histories and the influence of various ontologies or 'turns'. To aid comprehension and clarity, this book describes the history, contribution and application of over 90 keywords in the field of education policy research. It is designed as a reference, learning and teaching tool to assist students, educators and researchers with: - complex learning and teaching; - wider and background reading and knowledge building; - critical scholarship and research; - interdisciplinary thinking and writing; and - theory development and application.