Impact of sustained professional development in STEM on outcome measures in a diverse urban district

Sustained professional development can support STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) reform. The authors describe a 3-year study of sustained professional development for 3 diverse urban schools across the salient factors of fidelity of implementation of project-based learning, development of professional learning communities, and student achievement. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected. The students who experienced the greatest fidelity of implementation exhibited the greatest gains (d = 1.41-2.03) on standardized test scores, while those with the lowest fidelity of implementation exhibited negative gains (d = -0.16 to -0.08). Qualitative data indicated teachers perceived there were multiple benefits from the implementation of project-based learning. © 2016 Taylor & Francis

Social learning in LEADER: Exogenous, endogenous and hybrid evaluation in rural development

This paper considers the relationship between the centralised exogenous, institutions and the embedded, endogenous institutions of rural governance in Europe through an examination the evaluation procedures of the European LEADER programme. LEADER is presented in the literature as progressive in terms of innovation and stakeholder engagement. Yet while the planning and management of LEADER embraces heterogeneity and participation, programmatic evaluation is centralised and held at arms length from delivery organisations. The paper reviews previous efforts to improve evaluation in LEADER and considers alternative strategies for evaluation, contrasting LEADER practice with participatory evaluation methodologies in the wider international context. Can evaluation in itself be valuable as a mode of social learning and hence a driver for endogenous development in rural communities in Europe? The paper concludes by examining the challenges in producing a hybrid form of evaluation which accommodates endogenous and exogenous values

Pivoting the Centre: Reflections on Undertaking Qualitative Interviewing in Academia

Researchers studying the role of universities in economic development have paid little attention to methods issues relating to the influence of researcher identities in interviews. Yet in this field of work, researcher identities can have a significant influence on the validity and reliability of `data' and their interpretation, not least because the researchers and at least some of their interviewees, ostensibly, are from the same sector and perhaps even are known to each other. This article considers the influences on the data of multiple identities occupied by an early career researcher doing qualitative interviews for a doctoral project on the role of universities in regional development. The identities occupied by the author were novice researcher, academic insider, career changer and former public sector executive who was a client of university academics. The article demonstrates the potential impact of these identities on the data collected and their interpretation, and the researcher's attempts to negotiate these identities. In thus demonstrating that the `how' of data collection can have important effects on the `what' of data collection and interpretation, the article argues that qualitative interviews in higher education policy research should pay more attention to the social construction of interview `data'