ABSTRACT
In the last decade, a series of handbooks, textbooks, and special issues of journals dedicated to exploring methodology and methods in the social sciences and education have been published (e.g., Bloome et al., 2008; Cresswell, 2007; Dyson & Genishi, 2005; Green, Camilli, & Ellmore, 2006; Heath & Street, 2008; Kamberelis & Dimitriadis, 2004; Reinking & Bradley, 2007; Tashakkori & Teddlie, 1998; Willis et al., 2008; Yin, 2003). These have provided both the neophyte and the experienced educational researcher with valuable introductions and advanced discussions of the multiple research traditions, perspectives, and tools. As Smagorinsky (this volume) notes, unlike previous generations today’s reading, writing, and literacy researchers are faced with a “virtually endless” array of approaches. The myriad approaches notwithstanding, discussion and debate of how to approach research on the teaching and learning of the English language arts continues to evolve. But where the emphasis had previously been on rigor and the enumeration of new approaches, methodologies, and methods, the current attention focuses on complexity, multiplicity, and substantive engagement with the epistemological and ontological construction of teaching and teachers, learning and learners, and language and literacy. These current foci are drawn from and implicit within the intricate learning experiences researchers are attempting to document. Teacher and student experiences and their questionable and contested learning outcomes compel researchers to ask complex questions that cannot be constrained by traditional quantitative and qualitative social science research models.
