Reason and Rigor How Conceptual Frameworks Guide Research

Sharon M. Ravitch, Ph.D., is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania?s Graduate School of Education. Ravitch?s research integrates across the fields of qualitative research, education, applied development, cultural anthropology, and human development and has three main strands: (1) Practitioner Research as a means to engendering professional and institutional development (2) International applied educational development research that works from a participatory approach (research projects are currently in Nicaragua, Haiti, India, and Ecuador); (3) Ethnography within and across disciplines. She has published three earlier books: Metodolog�a de la Investigaci�n Cualitativa…  More (Qualitative Research Methods: A Reader); School Counseling Principles: Diversity and Multiculturalism; and Matters of Interpretation: Reciprocal Transformation in Therapeutic and Developmental Relationships with Youth (with Michael Nakkula). Ravitch is the newly appointed Senior International Advisor to the Haitian Ministry of Education for their Educational Reconstruction Plan. She is Research Co-Director at the Center for the Study of Boys? and Girls? Lives. She holds two master?s degrees from Harvard University and a doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania.  Less

Matthew Riggan, Ph.D., is a Senior Researcher at the Consortium for Policy Research in Education at the University of Pennsylvania, and an Adjunct Assistant Professor in Penn's Graduate School of Education. His current research focuses on formative assessment in elementary mathematics; assessing analytic and problem-solving skills for postsecondary readiness; systemic reform to support science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education; and factors supporting or undermining the scale-up of promising reforms in urban school districts. He teaches courses in qualitative research design, data collection, and analysis, and has worked extensively on developing qualitative and mixed…  More methods approaches to program theory evaluation and analysis of video data. He holds a doctorate in Anthropology and Education from the University of Pennsylvania.  Less