1st Edition
Dialogues in Middle Level Education Research Volume 2 Insights from the AMLE New Directions 2021 Roundtable Discussions
This book echoes and enhances the generative, dialogic, knowledge-building process that took place at the AMLE 2021 conference, reflecting the way in which middle-level researchers work collaboratively and draw ideas and inspiration for their studies from prior research and accounts of practice, as well as their own experiences in the field.
Each of the five sections features a recent study presented at the roundtable session at the 2021 AMLE conference, accompanied by two companion pieces offering different perspectives on the work. In the latter, the authors enrich and extend the original research by incorporating feedback from the conference session discussions, revisiting their findings and conclusions, considering alternative approaches to further research, and proposing new or clarified implications for practice. Addressing themes across theoretical frameworks and diversity of research design, and with topics ranging from music education to teacher agency and the productive struggle, the volume crucially presents and discusses recent innovations in the field with a view to prompting future research questions and deeper inquiry.
As such, it will benefit researchers, doctoral students, and academics in the fields of middle level education, educational research, and specifically research methods in education. Those interested in teaching and learning, and adolescent development more broadly will also benefit from this volume.
INTRODUCTION 1. Building and Broadening the Middle Level Education Knowledge Base PART 1: Studying the Schools to Watch Program 2. Reflection on Illinois Horizon Schools: Initial Findings from the Illinois Schools to Watch Program 3. Illinois Horizon Schools: Initial Research Findings from the Illinois Schools to Watch Program 4. Findings from the Illinois Horizon Schools: Validating the Present, Looking to the Future PART 2: Community School Reform 5. Community School Reform and Middle Level School Culture and Community: This We Now Believe 6. Exploring the Impact of a Community School Reform Initiative on the Literacy Achievement of Middle Level English Language Learners 7. Exploring the Possibility of Creating a Community School in a Rural Setting in the Deep South PART 3: Teacher Agency in Curriculum Processes 8. Better Together: Implications for District and School Leadership Instating a Collective Model that Includes Teacher Leaders as Curriculum Designers 9. Teachers as Curriculum Designers: Inviting Teachers into the Productive Struggle 10. The What Informs, the How Transforms: Middle Grades Pedagogy Theory to Practice PART 4: Social-Emotional Learning and Character Development in the Middle Grades 11. Revisiting “It’s Not All or Nothing: Exploring the Impact of a Social-Emotional and Character Development Intervention in the Middle Grades” 12. It’s Not All or Nothing: Exploring the Impact of a Social-Emotional and Character Development Intervention in the Middle Grades 13. Whatever It Takes to Help Middle Level Students PART 5: Music Education Research in the Middle Grades 14. Considering Young Adolescent Intrinsic Motivation in Music Learning: The Exploration and Choice Dialectic 15. Music Teachers’ Perceptions of General Music as a Required Middle Level Course 16. The Continuing Conundrums of Music Learning and Teaching in Middle Schools CONCLUSION 17. Sailing the Stormy Seas Together: Diverse Perspectives on Middle Level Education Research
Biography
David C. Virtue is the Taft B. Botner Distinguished Professor of Middle Grades Education at Western Carolina University, USA.
