The Editor Notes

Abstract

This volume is bracketed by articles that span the wide horizons of current educational research. The volume opens with the deeply thoughtful and intricate work of Akkerman and Bakker on boundary crossing and boundary objects. They present evidence that the educational world can in fact capitalize on the presence and use of boundaries to move through and beyond possible barriers. Their work is both international and broad in terms of theory base. They access literature from management, linguistics, medicine, industry, communications, and anthropology, as well as education. In contrast, the last article, by Yeager and Walton, stays close to the home base of social psychology and presents a clearly argued case of the power of social psychological interventions for educational improvement. The contribution resides in their unpacking of how and why these interventions work and what we have to do in the future to build others like them. The middle sections of this issue deal with specific reviews of interventions or practices that show promise for educational growth. Weiser and Mathes focus on encoding and its supportive role in learning to read, especially for students at risk. Ingersoll and Strong review induction studies to examine the impact of variation of education on teacher retention and practice and on student achievement. McGrew challenges some of the assumptions of resistance research, which is anchored in the ideas of Paul Willis. He presses for his colleagues to reexamine their assumptions about where various ideas of resistance theory come from and what they actually say. The overall value of the volume rests with its considerable diversity in focus, methodology, and content.