Critical Theory, Methods, and Design in Educational Research

Two of the foremost educational researchers chronicle their 30-year collaboration across tumultuous shifts in educational studies, bearing witness to cumulative inequities in schools and urban communities.

Weis and Fine examine critical research designs with young people from elite, working class, and impoverished class fractions, as well as across racial and ethnic groups, including those experiencing structural dispossession and those enjoying privilege.

Curated to be useful to today’s students and future generations of scholars, the volume chronicles the sustained impacts of unjust state systems and dives into vibrant fissures in which the imagination flourishes and possibilities grow.

Chapters explore rich linkages of theory and methods; knotty questions of collaboration, partnership, and ethics; and designs that trace social relations over time and space. A newly developed introduction and conclusion bookend six previously published chapters, many coauthored with a range of colleagues, animating research studies with a broad range of young people and young adults navigating the uneven landscapes of education in urban America.

Book Features:

• Details linked to research methodologies, including multi-site longitudinal ethnography and longitudinal ethnographic interviews, as well as participatory action research that the authors, among others, have advanced in critical educational studies.
• Provides examples of educational research that interrogate inequities and document radical possibilities by race, class, gender, immigration status, and sexuality.
• Examines projects that have been designed alongside and by vibrant research teams from across schools, prisons, youth movements, and public and private educational P–16 plus settings.
• Interrogates how the authors evolved innovative research methods and ethics attentive to “studying up,” mapping, national youth-led surveys, participatory inquiry behind bars, and with middle school students.
• Offers educational designs that address inequities in STEM education and outcomes and the impact of state violence on young people; as well as methods for understanding structural arrangements, youth identities, and on-the-ground research for justice.

Lois Weis is State University of New York Distinguished Professor of Sociology of Education at the University at Buffalo, The State University of New York. Michelle Fine is Distinguished Professor of Critical Psychology and Urban Education at the Graduate Center, CUNY, and founding faculty member of The Public Science Project. They are coauthors of Silenced Voices and Extraordinary Conversations: Re-Imagining Schools; Speed Bumps: A Student Friendly Guide to Qualitative Research, and Construction Sites: Excavating Race, Class and Gender Among Urban Youth, all published by Teachers College Press, among other publications.

“Once again, Drs. Fine and Weis have compiled writing by an impressive array of scholars whose commitment to using their research to advance justice and equity is profound and unflinching. The chapters in this volume contribute important perspectives to the field of education that students and scholars will find invaluable and extremely informative. Given that diversity, equity and inclusion are under attack like never before, this timely book will soon become an indispensable resource and guide to scholars everywhere who remain dedicated to using education as a resource to transform society.”
—Pedro Noguera, Emery Stoops and Joyce King Stoops Dean, USC Rossier School of Education

“This book embodies a powerful intellectual reunion of two critical education scholars who fully appreciate the importance of conducting deep inquiry of, and with those most harshly impacted by, capitalist and racialized hierarchies. And most importantly, Fine and Weiss understand the ability of the integration of theoretical and empirical research to reveal the linkages between micro-level lived experiences and the larger macro-level political and economic global contexts in which they are embedded, enabling us all to fully appreciate the possibility of resistance and transformation—a lesson needed now more than ever.”
—Amy Stuart Wells, Chief Research Officer at Bank Street College of Education and professor emeritus at Teacher College, Columbia University

“For more than 3 decades, Lois Weis and Michelle Fine have studied the interplay of macro social, economic, and political inequalities and individuals’ private lives. They expand our epistemological tool kit, offering deep theoretical and empirical accounts of the experiences and identities of marginalized youth, and illuminating the possibilities of resistance. The need for their insights has never felt so urgent.”
—Aaron M. Pallas, Arthur I. Gates Professor of Sociology and Education, Teachers College, Columbia University

"An essential text for those seeking to incorporate a critical theory perspective into courses in educational research."
—Gary J. Natriello, Ruth L. Gottesman Professor in Educational Research, Teachers College, Columbia University