Review of Educational Research

This article aims to stimulate discussion about the issue of rigor in conducting reviews of multivocal literatures. Multivocal literatures, which abound in the field of education, are comprised of all accessible writings on a common, often contemporary topic. The exploratory case study method is proposed as a means to engender rigor in reviews of such literatures. It is argued that it is appropriate to apply the concept of rigor to reviews of multivocal literatures and to use the exploratory case study method as a tool for thinking about procedures that could enhance rigor in such reviews. The article draws upon the authors’ experiences in conducting a review of the literature on school-based management to illustrate how the proposed procedures might be employed.

Terms used to designate knowledge constructs have proliferated in the literature and often seem to duplicate, subsume, or contradict one another. In this article, we present a conceptual framework for organizing and relating terms that pertain to select knowledge constructs. We begin with an examination of the literature. Based on that review, we build a framework that is intended to clarify terms, and the associations among them, and to articulate definitional statements for these knowledge terms. Finally, we consider the importance of this theoretical undertaking for future research in cognition and in learning.

Jürgen Habermas is a dominant figure in social theory. His work addresses the whole of society, not merely one aspect of it. As a result of this comprehensiveness, his work is used internationally in philosophy, political science, sociology, and education. This article reviews specific aspects of his work that are used in the English language educational literature. I made a comprehensive survey of English language articles that cite Habermas from January 1972 to June 1987 in the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI). The focus of my review was on: (a) identifying those aspects of Habermas’s work that have implications for education and (b) analyzing those implications and the applications of them to educational topics and issues.

This review discusses the effects of community involvement on students who face multiple impediments to success in schools. The first part of the article conceptualizes community involvement as a typology of four processes of social change: conversion, mobilization, allocation of resources, and instruction. Illustrations of these processes are drawn from research and programmatic literature. The second part of the article considers the effects of the varied forms of involvement in a review of 13 evaluations of interventions implemented with significant input from community entities. Overall, the studies indicate that programs can have positive effects on school-related behavior and achievement as well as attitudes and risk-taking behavior. The concluding section identifies gaps in the research and offers a framework for future studies.