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Journal Article 1: Sampson, H. (2004). Navigating the waves: The usefulness of a pilot in qualitative research. Qualitative Research, 4, 383–402.

Abstract: In line with a more reflexive approach in social science, particularly amongst ethnographers, authors increasingly report not just what they have found from a piece of research but how they have gone about doing it. Using a similar style this article considers the importance of pilot work in undertaking qualitative and ethnographic studies, prior to researcher immersion in the ‘field’. It offers an account of the author’s experiences of ‘cold’and total immersion in a fieldwork setting and uses a contrasting example of a funded and carefully developed pilot study using a variety of methods, in order to highlight the benefits of pilot work. In doing so it suggests that while pilots are not new to ethnographers they are under-discussed and to some extent under-utilized, perhaps as a consequence of methodological allegiances and a tendency to link pilots with more positivist approaches in social science. The article suggests that while pilots can be used to refine research instruments such as questionnaires and interview schedules they have greater use still in ethnographic approaches to data collection in foreshadowing research problems and questions, in highlighting gaps and wastage in data collection, and in considering broader and highly significant issues such as research validity, ethics, representation and researcher health and safety.

Journal Article 2: Cole, M. (2010). What’s culture got to do with it? Educational research as a necessarily interdisciplinary enterprise. Educational Researcher, 39, 461–470.

Abstract: The author examines the role of culture in education in historical perspective to suggest the conditions required to promote generalized educational reform. Although deliberate instruction appears to be a ubiquitous characteristic of human beings, schools arise only when large numbers of people begin to live in close proximity, using technologies that create economic surpluses. Schooling is associated with the development of institutionalized hierarchies, modes of cultural transmission associated with writing and record keeping, and increased political-economic disparities within societies. The author examines several strategies for seeking change in the cultural foundations of schooling. He offers suggestions for why such strategies appear to have limited impact, and he discusses changes in global conditions that might lead to generalized educational reform.

Journal Article 3: Lewis, C., Perry, R., & Murata, A. (2006). How should research contribute to instructional improvement? The case of lesson study. Educational Researcher, 35, 3–14.

Abstract: Lesson study, a Japanese form of professional development that centers on collaborative study of live classroom lessons, has spread rapidly in the United States since 1999. Drawing on examples of Japanese and U.S. lesson study, we propose that three types of research are needed if lesson study is to avoid the fate of so many other once-promising reforms that were discarded before being fully understood or well implemented. The proposed research includes development of a descriptive knowledge base; explication of the innovation’s mechanism; and iterative cycles of improvement research. We identify six changes in the structure and norms of educational research that would enhance the field’s capacity to study emerging innovations such as lesson study. These changes include rethinking the routes from educational research to educational improvement and recognizing a “local proof route”; building research methods and norms that will better enable us to learn from innovation practitioners; and increasing our capacity to learn across cultural boundaries.