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"Theory and Research"
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Reflexivity in Practice: Power and Ethics in Feminist Research on International Relations
How can we study power and identify ways to mitigate its abuse in the real world when we, as researchers, also participate in the projection of power through knowledge claims? Informing epistemological perspective, theoretical choices, research design, data collection, data analysis, exposition of findings, and venues for sharing findings, feminism offers many answers. We argue that the most important feminist tool for guiding international relations scholarship is the research ethic. This research ethic is the research practice associated with a critical feminist theory that is reflective of the normative concerns of constructivist, critical, post-modern, and post-colonial theories. It offers International Relations researchers feminist standards for assessing research despite feminism's multiplicity and its defiance of attempts to delimit its practice. This article sets out a feminist research ethic for improving international relations (IR) scholarship, regardless of whether it is feminist or not. We then show that this research practice can also help the researcher resolve ethical dilemmas in research in ethical ways that enhance the quality of the research.
Journal Article
Theory for the working sociologist
Theory for the Working Sociologist makes social theory easy to understand by revealing sociology's hidden playbook. Fabio Rojas argues that sociologists use four different theoretical \"moves\" when they try to explain the social world: how groups defend their status, how people strategically pursue their goals, how values and institutions support each other, and how people create their social reality. Rojas uses famous sociological studies to illustrate these four types of theory and show how students and researchers may apply them to their interests. The guiding light of the book is the concept of the \"social mechanism,\" which clearly and succinctly links causes and effects in social life. Drawing on dozens of empirical studies that define modern sociology and focusing on the nuts and bolts of social explanation, Rojas reveals how areas of study within the field of sociology that at first glance seem dissimilar are, in fact, linked by shared theoretical underpinnings. In doing so, he elucidates classical and contemporary theory, and connects both to essential sociological findings made throughout the history of the field. Aimed at undergraduate students, graduate students, journalists, and interested general readers who want a more formal way to understand social life, Theory for the Working Sociologist presents the underlying themes of sociological thought using contemporary research and plain language.\"--Provided by Publisher.
Book
Comparison of test performance on paper-based testing (PBT) and computer-based testing (CBT) by English-majored undergraduate students in China
Computer-based testing (CBT), which refers to delivering assessments with computers, has been widely used in large English proficiency tests worldwide. Despite an increasing CBT in China, limited research is available concerning whether CBT can be used for the Test for English Majors-Band 4 (TEM 4). The current study investigated whether testing mode impacted TEM 4 score and factors (i.e., computer familiarity level and attitude towards CBT) that might correlate with performance on CBT of TEM 4. Overall 92 Chinese undergraduate students were randomly assigned to one of the groups, i.e., CBT or paper-based testing (PBT), and took the test. A mixed method was employed, including (1) quantitative and qualitative analysis of test performance in two modes, as well as CBT group participants’ computer familiarity and attitudes towards the mode; and (2) thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews. The results revealed that (1) test scores in CBT and PBT were comparable; (2) two items in the computer familiarity questionnaire, i.e., comfort level of reading articles on the computer and forgetting time when using computers, positively correlated with CBT scores; and (3) participants’ attitude towards CBT did not impact test performance.
Journal Article
Critical methods for the study of world politics : creativity and transformation
\"This book develops an approach to both method and the socio-political implications of knowledge production that embraces our embeddedness in the world that we study. It seeks to enact the transformative potentials inherent in this relationship in how it engages readers. It presents a reader-friendly and creative survey of some of the newest developments in critical research methods and critical pedagogy that together go beyond the aims of knowledge transfer that often structure our practices. Each contribution takes on a different shape, tone and orientation, and discusses a critical method or approach, teasing out the ways in which it can also work as a transformative practice. While the presentation of different methods is both rigorously practice-based and specific, contributors also offer reflections on the stakes of critical engagement and how it may play an important role in expanding and subverting existing regimes of intelligibility. Contributions variously address the following key questions: What makes your research method important? How can others work with it? How has research through this method and/or the way you ended up deploying it transformed you and/or your practice? How did it matter for thinking about community, (academic) collaboration, and sharing 'knowledge'? This volume makes the case for re-politicizing the importance of research and the transformative potentials of research methods not only in 'accessing' the world as an object of study, but as ways of acting and being in the world. It will be of interest to students and scholars of international relations, critical theory, research methods and politics in general\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
The effect of using online language-support resources on L2 writing performance
Language learners today have access to a much wider choice of resources and language-support tools that aid their writing processes. While research on the convenience and flexibility of the writing resources that learners use in real-life writing activities have argued for a re-conceptualization of writing ability, little is known about the effect of using them in a writing assessment setting. Accordingly, the present study aimed to examine whether L2 learners’ use of writing resources in a writing test might have an effect on their writing performance. Furthermore, we also investigated how the effects of the writing resources might vary by test takers’ writing proficiency and scoring domains. Results showed that the group who had access to writing resources outperformed the group who were not given the online resource, but both groups’ scores were within the same scoring descriptor. The significant score improvement was more evident in the low- and intermediate-level learners. In a questionnaire, test takers reported that they normally use the writing resources in real-life writing situations and also found the online resource features helpful in improving their writing performance and agreed upon introducing such features in future writing tests.
Journal Article
What is the Relationship between Theory and Research? Current Points from The Polish Peasant
100 years after its publication, The Polish Peasant in Europe and America can be remembered for the attempt to merge different perspectives and overcome the dichotomies. However, it cannot be denied that it is also a controversial work: indeed, beyond the intentions of the authors pronounced in the introduction and methodological note, the integration between theory and research is not so fluid. Our hypothesis is that these limits can be traced back to an intrinsic tension that crosses the whole work and also the Chicago School: the tension between emic and etic. On this basis, the paper traces the choices that the authors made in the different research phases: from the selection of the object of study to the gathering of information, from the data analysis to the reporting and applying the results. In the end the paper demonstrates that in The Polish Peasant the relationship of circularity between theory and research can be recognized as problem-oriented, and that the main result of the work is not so much in its interpretative capacity, nor in its (desired) methodological rigor: it is rather in the affirmation of a public role of sociology.
Journal Article
Clustering students’ writing behaviors using keystroke logging: a learning analytic approach in EFL writing
Feedback is an essential component of learning environments. However, providing feedback in populated classes can be challenging for teachers. On the one hand, it is unlikely that a single kind of feedback works for all students considering the heterogeneous nature of their needs. On the other hand, delivering personalized feedback is infeasible and time-consuming. Available automated feedback systems have helped solve the problem to some extent. However, they can provide personalized feedback only after a draft is submitted. To help struggling students during the writing process, we can use machine learning to cluster students who benefit the same from feedback using keystroke logs. We can apply the results in automated feedback systems that provide process feedback. In this study, we aim to find homogeneous student profiles based on their writing process indicators. We use fourteen process indicators to find clusters in the data set. We used these measures in a four-stage analysis, including (a) data preprocessing, (b) dimensionality reduction, (c) clustering, and (d) the analysis of the writing quality. Clustering techniques identified five different profiles: Strategic planners, Rapid writers, Emerging planners, Average writers, and Low-performing writers. We further validated the emerged profiles by comparing them concerning students' writing quality. The present work broadens our knowledge of how students interact with writing tasks and addresses how variations in writing behaviors lead to qualitatively different products. We discuss the theoretical underpinnings and potentials of finding profiles of students during writing in higher education.
Journal Article