Michael G. Gunzenhauser

High-Stakes Testing and the Default Philosophy of Education

In this article, the author argues that high-stakes testing may lead to a default philosophy of education that holds in high regard a narrow bundle of knowledge and skills. A default philosophy is defined as the vision of education that results from a lack of reflective, engaged dialogue among educators and school communities about their goals and practices. In the context of high-stakes testing, one predominant default philosophy results from an inordinate focus on the tests themselves. As has been shown in research studies throughout the United States, this creates a context in which conversations about the meaning and value of education cannot take place without performance on standardized tests taking center stage. Within this context, dialogue is more difficult, and other possible philosophies of education become harder to articulate and implement. When the default philosophy of education dominates in a school, school district, or state, the possibilities for improving education reform and innovation are limited.

A Moral Epistemology of Knowing Subjects Theorizing a Relational Turn for Qualitative Research

This article is an analysis of “relation” in qualitative research. The analysis emerges from consideration of feminist philosophies of ethics and epistemologies, including Codes moral epistemology, and exemplars of qualitative research by Duneier and Lather and Smithies. The central argument of the article is that the quality of qualitative research reflects the quality of relation developed between the researcher and researched as “knowing subjects.” The article shows the implications of a turn to relation as following these themes: the commitment to knowing to care, engendering multiple relations, illusions of closeness, and representation of relational knowing.

Justice in the Gaps: School Leader Dispositions and the Use of Data to Address the Opportunity Gap

This article addresses what we are calling “the gaps,” the divergent and contextual understandings of “opportunity gap” and “achievement gap” evident in interviews with principals and school district leaders. Drawing from a sample of 22 interviews in urban, inner-ring suburban, and outer-ring suburban schools in a northeastern state, we explore how school leaders define the “gaps,” use data (in its many forms) to pose questions and construct solutions, and position themselves. Analysis unearthed varied dispositions among the school leaders about how to frame gaps in achievement and opportunity, varied capacities to address these gaps, and varied leadership responses.

Student Evaluation of Teaching as a Disciplinary Mechanism: A Foucauldian Analysis

Ya-Wen Hou, Ph.D., received her Ph.D. in Higher Education Management from the University of Pittsburgh in 2015. Her doctoral dissertation sought to develop a scale of dynamic capabilities of targeted Taiwanese universities and to understand how senior administrators perceive strategic management practices of their affiliated universities in quest of becoming world-class universities. Her research focuses on higher education management, educational administration, and policy studies.