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The language of "scholar-activist" has made its way into academic discourse over the last few decades. Historically a divide has existed between academics situated in the university and activists working within and across communities. This discussion paper addresses challenges scholars face when doing activist work within their institutional and community settings and on an international level. We explore the ways in which "scholar-activism" has been taken up in the academy and how it is shaped by local and global contexts. Specifically, we discuss the factors that influence the work of those claiming to be scholar-activists who are interested in working for social change. We suggest that if scholar-activists are to maintain respectful relationships across individual and community differences, we must first negotiate how we may be differently positioned in terms of privilege, power, resources, race, identity, history of colonialism, and personal and national identity. We hope that this discussion paper will generate dialogue among our international colleagues about the possibilities of shifting beyond our local contexts to work respectfully, cross-culturally and to create global partnerships. Ultimately, we question how we can work with our global partners to build a basic and productive foundation upon which we might engage scholar-activism and contribute to creating social and institutional change.

In this article, we report on our qualitative study involving eight individuals hired to transcribe research tapes in university contexts. We consider issues of data analysis and data trustworthiness and the implications for both when transcription is assigned to someone other than the researcher. We explore the challenges transcribers faced completing their work, transcription decisions they made in situ, and the effects of the transcribers' degree of investment in the research on the transcripts produced. We highlight the need for researchers to acknowledge transcription as an important aspect of the research process and take seriously the decision of who transcribes. [published in May 2004]

An important element of doctoral studies is identification with the academic community. Such identification is often complicated by part-time student status. In this paper, two part-time doctoral students and their supervisor employ Lave and Wenger's concept of legitimate peripheral participation to explore, through a critical socio-cultural lens, their experiences of shifting towards fuller participation in, and identification with, the academic community. The research was conducted during a directed study course, a context students and supervisor used as an opportunity to examine their engagement in legitimate research activities as students completed their coursework requirements and prepared for academic careers. Although the research is context specific, the discussion will be useful to individuals who are working towards similar goals in university contexts.

This article explores the experiences of two university instructors who taught, on separate occasions, the same graduate course in education that was designed to encourage graduate students (the majority of whom were White teachers) to critically engage issues of difference, race, Whiteness, color-blindness and privilege in their classrooms. Leanne (untenured, Black mixed-race and middle class) and Susan (tenured, White and middle class) discuss their experiences and critical reflections related to teaching the course. In particular, the authors draw on Aoki's phenomenological concept of curriculum as lived to illuminate how the bodies in a classroom, the ideologies and beliefs of individuals, as well as structural (both macro and micro) forces at play influence what evolves as the curriculum. By interrogating key tensions, contradictions and challenges that arose when teaching the course, the authors point to how an understanding of curriculum as lived can enhance efforts to teach for social justice and equity goals. (Contains 1 note.)

In this article, we explore our experience of carving out space within an academic program where we were able to engage in learning and teaching that enhanced our capacity to understand foundational literature in the Socio/Cultural Field of Study and work towards our social justice goals. The doctoral course described provided the conditions (environmental and social) we needed to support our questioning of disciplinary and personal knowledge and experience and "to see the limitations and lacunae in our understandings" (Burbules and Berk 1999, 61). Data collected during the course included: audio-taped class sessions, weekly written responses/reflections, and final papers.

Drawing from educational research conducted in Canada and Mexico, university researchers explore how culture complicates both the ethics review process and the translation of ethical research principles into practice. University researchers in Canadian contexts seek approval from university Research Ethics Boards to conduct research, following policies outlined in the "Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans." In this article, the authors consider some cross-cultural ethical dilemmas in relation to educational research, which is often qualitative and interpretive in nature and conducted in schooling settings. Drawing from educational research, the authors conduct both in Canada and in an international context an exploration of how culture complicates both the ethics review process and the translation of ethical research principles into practice. As a result of their experiences, the authors focus specifically on issues related to consent, reciprocity, anonymity and confidentiality, and data representation.

Currently researchers connected to university contexts who conduct research involving human participants must receive approval from a research ethics board, and in the case of school-based research, from school district authorities. This article focuses on the ethics review of school-based research. Applications submitted to a research ethics board and a district research review committee serve as primary data for the study. Information presented relates to research interests, researchers' background, methodologies proposed, and board decisions. Emergent themes discussed are limited to two: a focus on student researchers and research ethics review, and the connections between the research review boards and their influence on school-based research.

Explores the possibility of conducting respectful research within a prison context and considers the implications for other educational settings. Discusses the researcher's shifting positions in the research context, including increasing familiarity with the subject. (SLD)

The manner in which culture complicates the ethics review process and the translation of ethical research principles into practice is studied using data from educational research conducted in Canada and Mexico. Issues related to consent, reciprocity and data representation in cross-cultural ethical dilemmas in relation to education research are considered.

The importance of researchers, taking seriously, the extent to which the person transcribing tapes influences research data is explained. The experiences and challenges faced by Ken, a person hired to transcribe audiotapes of focus group interviews that was conducted for a large research study are described.

The language of 'scholar-activist' has made its way into academic discourse over the last few decades. Historically a divide has existed between academics situated in the university and activists working within and across communities. This discussion paper addresses challenges scholars face when doing activist work within their institutional and community settings and on an international level. We explore the ways in which 'scholar-activism' has been taken up in the academy and how it is shaped by local and global contexts. Specifically, we discuss the factors that influence the work of those claiming to be scholar-activists who are interested in working for social change. We suggest that if scholar-activists are to maintain respectful relationships across individual and community differences, we must first negotiate how we may be differently positioned in terms of privilege, power, resources, race, identity, history of colonialism, and personal and national identity. We hope that this discussion paper will generate dialogue among our international colleagues about the possibilities of shifting beyond our local contexts to work respectfully, cross-culturally and to create global partnerships. Ultimately, we question how we can work with our global partners to build a basic and productive foundation upon which we might engage scholar-activism and contribute to creating social and institutional change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An important element of doctoral studies is identification with the academic community. Such identification is often complicated by part-time student status. In this paper, two part-time doctoral students and their supervisor employ Lave and Wenger's concept of legitimate peripheral participation to explore, through a critical socio-cultural lens, their experiences of shifting towards fuller participation in, and identification with, the academic community. The research was conducted during a directed study course, a context students and supervisor used as an opportunity to examine their engagement in legitimate research activities as students completed their coursework requirements and prepared for academic careers. Although the research is context specific, the discussion will be useful to individuals who are working towards similar goals in university contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we examine how Western liberal constructions of happiness are embedded in the goals and everyday work of teachers striving to create positive learning environments in their classrooms. We ask: at what cost is such happiness achieved? Drawing on empirical data collected from interviews with practicing teachers in a graduate course, and building on our classroom experiences in graduate and teacher education, we trouble liberal notions of happiness in order to understand the inequities perpetuated in schooling institutions. As educators committed to social justice education and critical pedagogy, we challenge pedagogical approaches in classrooms that: support treating all students the same, advocate 'equality over equity', ignore differences, avoid conflict and inevitably resist difficult knowledge. Such perspectives on teaching, we argue, can prevent teachers from naming difference and engaging with the discomfort and tensions that are important in productive and transformative education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we explore our experience of carving out space within an academic program where we were able to engage in learning and teaching that enhanced our capacity to understand foundational literature in the Socio/Cultural Field of Study and work towards our social justice goals. The doctoral course described provided the conditions (environmental and social) we needed to support our questioning of disciplinary and personal knowledge and experience and 'to see the limitations and lacunae in our understandings' (Burbules and Berk 1999, 61). Data collected during the course included: audio-taped class sessions, weekly written responses/reflections, and final papers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]