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About the Contributors vii <p>Preface xiii</p> <p>Acknowledgements xv</p> <p>Introduction 1<br /> <i>Jeff Adams, Matt Cochrane and Linda Dunne</i></p> <p><b>Part I New Voices: Beginning Researchers Apply Theory 11</b></p> <p>1 Learning and Maintaining Professional Expertise Within a Multi-Professional Critical Care Team 15<br /> <i>Jill Cochrane</i></p> <p>2 The 'Q' Standards and Initial Teacher Training: The Discursive Formation of Teachers and their Trainers 31<br /> <i>Paul Bartle</i></p> <p>3 Power and Status Theories in Teachers' Professional Development 47<br /> <i>Karen Castle</i></p> <p>4 The Process of Technology Learning: Applying Bruner's Theory on Play, Discovery and Cultural Learning to the Acquisition of ICT Capability 61<br /> <i>Paula Beer</i></p> <p><b>Part II Emergent Voices: Accounts by Researchers Becoming Familiar with the Use of Theory 75</b></p> <p>5 Teachers' Professional Identity: Theoretical Perspectives on Workplace Learning in the Teaching Context 81<br /> <i>Rob Foster</i></p> <p>6 Children's University Aspirations and the Effects of Cultural and Social Capital 95<br /> <i>Matt Cochrane<br /> </i></p> <p>7 Finding Theory Through Collaborative Research 109<br /> <i>Clare Woolhouse</i></p> <p>8 How Applying a Discourse-Based Approach to Investigate Inclusion Changed a Research Project and a Way of Thinking 123<br /> <i>Linda Dunne</i></p> <p><b>Part III Voices of Experience: Accounts by Researchers Versed in the Use of Theory 139</b></p> <p>9 Should I be Singing This, and if So, How High?: Theoretical Approaches to Boyhood and Masculinity 145<br /> <i>Martin Ashley</i></p> <p>10 Theorizing from Bricolage: Researching Collaboration in Art and Design Education 157<br /> <i>Madeleine Sclater</i></p> <p>11 Constructivism and the Pedagogy of Teacher Education: Reflections on Practice 175<br /> <i>Graham Rogers</i></p> <p>12 Developing Professional Practice through Action Research: Theory-Generative Approaches in Practitioner Research 189<br /> <i>Mary McAteer</i></p> <p>13 Art Practice as Education Research 203<br /> <i>Jeff Adams</i></p> <p>Postscript 219<br /> <i>Jeff Adams, Matt Cochrane and Linda Dunne</i></p> <p>Index 221</p>

<b>Jeff Adams</b> is Professor of Education at the University of Chester and Principal Editor of the <i>International Journal of Art and Design Education.</i> He is the author of <i>Documentary Graphic Novels</i> and <i>Social Realism</i> (2008) and co-author of <i>Teaching Through Contemporary Art</i> (2008). <p><b>Matt Cochrane</b> is Senior Lecturer in Education at Edge Hill University. He is a co-author of <i>Teaching Science</i> (2009).</p> <p><b>Linda Dunne</b> is Senior Lecturer and Research Fellow at Edge Hill University. She is a member of the British Educational Research Council.</p>

For beginning researchers, theory can be one of the most stimulating – yet intellectually daunting – aspects of academic work. <i>Applying Theory to Educational Research</i> provides new educational researchers with a uniquely accessible introduction to the process of selecting and applying theories in their own work. Written by a team of leading educationalists writing from the perspective of new researchers, clearly structured chapters introduce individual theorists and their ideas, present their applications and limitations, and provide extensive references and suggestion for further reading. Major theorists such as Pierre Bourdieu, Michel Foucault, Max Weber, Jacques Derrida, and Lev Vygotsky are included, along with many more recent educational theorists. Throughout the text, helpful hints and signposts are provided to alert readers to the potential pitfalls of applying theory. <p>Innovative and illuminating, <i>Applying Theory to Educational Research</i> offers a wealth of practical insights that will point the way for novice researchers struggling to navigate an often daunting intellectual obstacle course.</p>

It is impossible to be in and of world with any degree of functional success, without recourse to theory. Managing day to day life, let alone engaging in the relatively esoteric pursuit of research, demands some reasonably coherent framework of reference within which to make sense of experiences and perceptions. We need theories – plausible explanations for what’s going on – to live and research by. When it comes to research students, my experience is that they either fear or embrace theory. In sharing lived experiences of using theory, this book will help to reassure the timid and excite the confident.<br /> —<b><i>Pat Sikes</i></b><i>, Professor in Qualitative Inquiry, University of Sheffield, UK</i> <p><i>Applying Theory to Educational Research</i> offers a theoretically informed and thoroughly readable text for beginner researchers in the field of education. The book is grounded in the authors’ own research interests through which concepts and ideas of some of the key theorists in education are explored. A key strength of the text is the way in which it makes difficult and potentially daunting theoretical ideas and frameworks accessible. This innovative and student-friendly text will be an invaluable resource for all those new, and not so new, to the research process in the field of education.<br /> —<b><i>Rosalyn George,</i></b> <i>Professor of Education and Equality, Goldsmiths University of London, UK</i></p>

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