Mainstreams, Margins and the Spaces In-between: New possibilities for education research

This book explores the complexities of investigating minorities, majorities, boundaries and borders, and the experiences of researchers who choose to work in these spaces. It engages with issues of ethics, disclosure and representation, and contends with and seeks to contribute to emerging debates around power and the positioning of researchers and participants. Chapters examine epistemologies that shape researchers’ beliefs about the forms of research that are valued in educational research and theory, and consider the importance of research that genuinely seeks to explore voice, culture, story, authenticity and identity. Resisting the backdrop of standardisation, performativity and accountability agendas pervading governments and organisations, the book attends to the stories of real people, to understand regional and rural landscapes, to examine culture and the human condition and to give voice to those at the fringes of society who remain largely neglected and unheard. Drawing largely on studies from Australia, the book provides an overview of the many types of research being engaged in, revealing the value of different kinds of research, and gaining insight into how meaning and findings are disseminated in research and educational sectors and back into the contexts where research takes place. Mainstreams, Margins and the Spaces In-between will be of key interest to early career researchers and academics internationally, as well as postgraduate students completing research methods courses in the field of education, and the wider social sciences.

Table of Contents:
1. Researching the In-betweens: Blurring the Boundaries of Mainstream and Marginal Education Stewart Riddle, Alison L. Black and Karen Trimmer 2. Building a Tapestry of Knowledge in the Spaces In-between: Weaving Personal and Collective Meaning through Arts-based Research Alison L. Black and Sandra O’Dea 3. Researching the Place of Gratitude in the Personal Domain of the Educator: Tales from the Field Kerry Howells 4. Mainstreaming Margins: Analysing the Knowledge of an Australian University Research Team Karl J. Matthews and P. A. Danaher 5. Where the Wild Things Are: Sustaining Practice in the Loneliest Place Julie A. Hollitt 6. Neither of the Air, nor of the Earth but a Creature Somewhere Between: The Researcher as Traveller Between Worlds Janice K. Jones 7. Insider/Outsider Research on Steiner Education in Australia: One Researcher’s Struggles with Positioning Tao Bak 8. Too Cool for Homeschool? Accessing Underground Unschoolers with Web 2.0 Rebecca English 9. Reducing the Marginalisation of Children: Relational Knowledge Production and the Power of Collaboration Alison L. Black, Gillian Busch and Marion Hayes 10. ‘Schools are for us’: The Importance of Distribution, Recognition and Representation to Creating Socially Just Schools Martin Mills, Glenda McGregor, Debra Hayes and Kitty te Riele 11. Speaking Back to the Mainstream from the Margins: Lessons from One Boutique Senior Secondary School Stewart Riddle and David Cleaver 12. Maths Challenges for Pre-service Teachers Nicholas Flegg and Karen Trimmer 13. Impacts on Awareness, Access and Utilisation of Early Intervention Support Services for Indigenous Families Living in Rural and Remote Areas: The National Disability Insurance Scheme Karen Trimmer, Roselyn Dixon, and Kerry Stubbs 14. On the Fringe of Research: The Case of Community Policing Celeste Lawson 15. Margins for Error: A Discussion of Barriers Preventing the Connection of Mainstream and Margins when Conducting In-school Research Jennifer Donovan 16. A Journey In-between: Using Talanoa in Research Reporting Susan Faoagali and Eileen Honan 17. A Story of Poetry and its Provocative Place in Re-presentation Sarah Loch 18. Reflective Questions Editors