research paper about english education

REVIEW article

Studies of teaching and learning english-speaking skills: a review and bibliometric analysis.

• School of Educational Studies, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia

This study conducted a comprehensive historical review and bibliometric analysis of the literature on English-speaking (ES) education and mapped the current state of the field, trends, and emerging topics, as well as identified gaps where further research is needed. We retrieved 361 sample documents on ES teaching and learning in Scopus (2010–2021) under certain conditions and analyzed the extracted data using Excel and VOSviewer 1.6.17 from the perspectives of the number of yearly publications, countries, authors, citation numbers, and keywords. The findings show that the number of publications on ES education increased from 2010 to 2021, but there was a lack of sustained engagement with this topic by researchers. Countries with an ESL or EFL context focused more on the subject of ES, although studies from native ES countries were more influential. The research topics showed a multidimensional trend, covering communicative skills, language knowledge, assessment, teaching or learning methods, ICT-related applications, and cognitive factors, of which ICT-related applications (such as flipped classrooms, blended learning, and e-learning) and cognitive factors (such as motivation, anxiety, and affect) were the areas of focus. Students in higher institutions, rather than children, became the main research subject of ES education over the period studied.

Introduction

A considerable amount of time and money has been invested in English language education (ELE) around the world, especially in countries where English is a Foreign (EFL) or Second Language (ESL). For example, ELE in East Asian countries such as China, South Korea, and Japan has been identified as a necessary skill, which has motivated the development of various approaches and policies ( Song, 2011 ; Hu and McKay, 2012 ). There have been at least three phases of English curriculum reforms by the Malaysian Ministry of Education directed toward improving students’ English proficiency and teachers’ professional development (TPD) ( Rashid et al., 2017 ; Kummin et al., 2020 ).

Despite unremitting efforts in many countries, ELE is still facing the problem of low average English skills. For example, students’ English skills in Turkey are not as good as expected ( Coskun, 2016 ; Özmen et al., 2016 ; Umunĉ and Raw, 2017 ). The survey by Wei and Su (2015) clearly showed that the subjects’ ES proficiency was generally low.

Many terms have been used to refer to the speaking aspects of the English language, e.g., “oral English,” “spoken English,” or “English speaking.” “English speaking” is the term used in this article. Speaking is different from writing, although both are productive skills, in that it is “transient, unplanned, context-dependent, oral/aural, and dynamic” ( Hughes, 2017 ). English-speaking (ES) has been treated as an indivisible language skill for learners in the language education fields of TESOL, EFL, and ESL.

How to improve ES ability, including teaching and learning approaches, influencing factors, and other related issues, have always been a focus of researchers. Thus, in view of the profound changes in society, politics, economics, and technologies, this article aims to give an overview of the current situation and trends regarding ES studies based on Scopus from 2010 to 2021. Moreover, it seeks to provide useful information for further ES teaching and learning research through visualized data analysis using VOSviewer 1.6.17 and Micro Excel.

Thus, the research questions (RQs) of this article are as follows:

RQ1. What is the bibliometric information regarding publications about ES teaching and learning in Scopus (2010–2021), including the number of yearly publications, authors, citations, country contributions, and keywords?

RQ2. What is the status of ES teaching and learning?

RQ3. What are the most influential authors in the field of ES teaching and learning?

RQ4. What are the trends in ES teaching and learning?

RQ5. What are the gaps in ES teaching and learning from the bibliometric information?

Materials and Methods

Bibliometric analysis refers to the cross-science of quantitative analysis of all carriers of knowledge by means of mathematics and statistics ( Broadus, 1987 ). The development of bibliometric software such as VOSviewer, Citespace, and Gephi, and the foundation of the big databases for academic documents such as Scopus, Web of Science, and Taylor and Francis make bibliometric analysis more feasible and practical ( Donthu et al., 2021 ). Meanwhile, according to Rogers et al. (2020) , the recommended minimum sample size for a bibliometric analysis is 200 entries.

Article Selection and Identification

Scopus was chosen as the database for this historical review and bibliometric analysis of ES education. This is because Scopus, as one of the world’s largest databases, covers a wide range of academic journals, conference proceedings, books, and other related publications with relatively high citation indexes and quality, much like the Web of Science ( Pham et al., 2018 ; Baas et al., 2020 ). Scopus is user-friendly in the sense that information can be conveniently retrieved through string retrieval. This study replicated the methodologies used by Lázaro (2022) and Kaya and Erbay (2020) . This article was conducted around RQs after the identification of some keywords as conditions for data mining.

Thus, 23,633 sample documents were first strictly extracted under the condition [TITLE-ABS-KEY (“English speaking” OR “English-speaking” OR “oral English” OR “spoken English”)] AND (“TESOL” OR “EFL” OR “ESL”). Then, the conditions of time span and document type were added for filtering from 2010 to 2021. Then, the articles, conference papers, reviews, book chapters, and books were chosen as the target document types. The detailed conditions can be seen in Table 1 .

Table 1. Retrieval conditions.

Finally, 1,893 documents were obtained. These were exported in the form of an Excel document with citation information, bibliographic information, abstract and keywords, funding details, and other information.

After strict data cleaning through thematic analysis of the abstracts by three researchers for more than three times, 361 sample documents remained, which were classified into four types of documents: journal articles (256; 70.91%), conference papers (79; 21.88%), book chapters (16; 4.43%), and reviews (10; 2.77%), covering more than 10 subject areas, such as social sciences, computer sciences, medicine, engineering, and arts and humanities.

Research Framework and Instruments

In the data selection step, sample documents were screened for information about authors, titles, years, citations, author keywords, index keywords, publishers, document types, countries, and author affiliations from Scopus under strict conditions. The sample documents were then uploaded to Excel and VOSviewer 1.6.17 during the data-processing step. Excel and VOSviewer 1.6.17 were used to perform the visualized bibliometric analysis of the number of publications per year, contributions of authors and countries, and keywords ( Chen, 2016 ; Van Eck and Waltman, 2017 ). Finally, the current situation, developing trends, research gaps, and lessons we can learn about ES teaching were sorted. Thus, the research framework is divided into four main steps, as shown in Figure 1 .

Figure 1. The conceptual framework.

Compared with studies on English writing and reading, studies on ES education are relatively very small in scale. Although only 361 sample documents conforming to the screening conditions were identified, it was still feasible to conduct a bibliometric analysis from the perspectives of the number of yearly publications, countries, authors, citations, and keywords.

Number of Publications by Year

According to the linear trend line in Figure 2 , the overall trend of the ES education literature in Scopus was on the rise from 2010 to 2021. The number of publications in 2021 was six times more than that in 2010, indicating that ES education was gradually beginning to be taken seriously by researchers.

Figure 2. Yearly publications on English-speaking teaching and learning (2010–2021).

However, there were some tortuous changes. In 2010, only 10 studies were identified, but the percentage of the high citation index occupied 50%. From 2011 to 2018, the number of documents published in this area presented an up-and-down curve. The number of publications was slightly lower in 2012 than in 2021. This might be due to the decreased demand for ES education as a result of the economic downturn in many emerging economies such as China, South Korea, and Brazil ( Reid, 2013 ). Yearly publications in this field increased from 2012 to 2013, but decreased again from 2013 to 2015, which was again in line with the global economic situation ( Mau and Ulyukaev, 2015 ). In 2015, the number of publications was more or less the same as in 2010. The reasons for this might be that world trade reduced during the global crisis from 2014 to 2015 ( Baber, 2015 ; Xu and Carey, 2015 ) or that no new research directions were explored during that time. After 2015, there was a continuous increase until 2017. After a subtle decrease in 2018, there was a significant accumulation in the number of publications from 2018 to 2021, showing a new growth trend. Especially in 2020 and 2021, when the COVID-19 pandemic brought disaster to the whole world, publications on ES education increased, reflecting the increasing requirement for ES communication during this time of global cooperation ( Sun and Lan, 2021 ). The influence of the date on the extraction of the sample documents was not very great, as it was 12 December 2021.

Contributions and Collaborations by Country/Region

The 361 sample records extracted in Scopus from 2010 to 2021 were associated with around 40 countries, showing the global distribution of interest by country in ES education.

Figure 3 shows the top 20 countries/regions publishing articles in this field, and they were responsible for 344 ES education publications (2010–2021) (accounting for 95.29% of the total). The countries with big and bright circles were the ones with the large number of the publications. Apart from the 75 publications contributed by the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Spain, and New Zealand, the remaining 269 publications were published by 10 Asian countries, accounting for 74.52% of the total sample documents, which implied the huge demand for the improvement of the learners’ ES skills in those countries. Mainland China contributed 128 publications, accounting for 40.44% of the total, followed by the United States, with 38 documents, accounting for 10.53%.

Figure 3. Density map of the top 10 countries.

Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand, countries in South-East Asia, occupied the third, fourth, and fifth positions, with 22, 22, and 18 publications, respectively. Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Bangladesh began to participate in country collaborations in recent years, in contrast to countries such as the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, and Singapore where English is the native language or first language.

The citation network in Figure 4 shows only countries with more than five publications, which reflected the passive collaboration among the countries. As one of the native ES countries, home to many ELE approaches and English assessment tools such as TOFEL, the publications by the United States were cited 518 times (total link strength = 10). Meanwhile, the United Kingdom, home to IELTS, contributed 12 publications, which were cited 72 times (total link strength = 5). Malaysia, where ESL, contributed 22 publications, which were cited 90 times (total link strength = 17). Meanwhile, China, with an EFL context, ranked second with 128 publications, which were cited 395 times, and the total link strength achieved 24.

Figure 4. Country co-authorship in the field of English speaking teaching and learning.

The total citation number of the 361 sample publications was 1,828. Table 2 provides detailed information on the 15 countries that published the most cited articles. The publication and the corresponding citation rate of the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore showed huge contrasts, respectively, 12.92, 19.45, 19.5, and 13.83. The high citation rate may to a certain extent represent a high reference value, although it may also be influenced by some highly cited papers ( Schubert and Braun, 1986 ; Aksnes et al., 2012 ; Brika et al., 2021 ). Thus, it was concluded that the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore, where English was the official language, were the leading countries with high citation rates in the field of ES education studies. Similarly, native ES countries—the United Kingdom and Canada—showed relatively high citation rates of 5.83 and 6.14, respectively. Meanwhile, the citation rates of Asian countries such as China (4.73), Japan (6.35), South Korea (5.08), Vietnam (8.38), and Oman (6.75) indicated the progress and the relatively high reference value of publications on ES education studies in those countries. The non-ES European countries such as Spain received 4.57 in citation rates, which were much lower than those of the native ES countries.

Table 2. Description of the 15 countries that published the most cited articles in the field of English-speaking (ES) education studies in Scopus (2010–2021).

Co-authorship among the countries is shown in Figure 5 , which is a presentation of active collaborations. The co-authorship links among Malaysia, India, China, and the United States were linear. However, the collaboration in the map showed a tendency toward a partial focus. For instance, the United States was the main collaborating country for Indonesia, South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Canada, Australia, and Singapore. While China collaborated mainly with the United Kingdom, the Philippines, Turkey, Vietnam, and New Zealand. Thus, there was a need for an omnidirectional and multi-angle collaboration among the countries for ES teaching and learning research across the world for further studies.

Figure 5. The map of the co-authorship among the countries on English-speaking teaching and learning.

Author Contributions

Table 3 shows general information about the citations for the 361 sample documents in Scopus (2010–2021). As can be seen in Table 4 , the topics of the top 10 most frequently cited articles were concerned with the assessment of ES proficiency and fluency, teachers’ influence, lexical acquisition, and the facilitation of mobile social networks. The total citation number was 1,828. On average, each document was cited 5.06 times. An experimental study by Kang et al. (2010) that proposed suprasegmental measurement for pronunciation assessment from the perspective of accent and equipment use was the most frequently cited article, which was cited 134 times. A qualitative study by Ma (2012) was cited 66 times, ranking second among the top 10 most frequently cited. It focused on ES teaching methods and investigated the advantages and disadvantages of native and non-native ES teachers in practice. The third most frequently cited article, which analyzed the academic lexical demands and academic word list coverage for ES communications by means of corpus, was cited 61 times ( Dang and Webb, 2014 ). Obviously, most of the top 10 most frequently cited articles were published before 2016, except for the experimental studies by Sun and Lan (2021) on the application of e-learning to develop young learners’ ES competence, implying the emergence of new research topics after 2016 in ES teaching and learning studies.

Table 3. General citations of English-speaking (ES) education publications in Scopus (2010–2021).

Table 4. Top 10 frequently cited authors on English-speaking (ES) education in Scopus (2010–2021).

The top 10 authors with more than three articles in order, were Ismail, K. (6), Abdullah, M. Y. (5), Hussin, S. (5), Liu, M. (5), Habil, H. (4), Chen, Z. (3), Hasan, M. K. (3), Hwang, G. J. (3), Rao, Z. (3), and Seraj, P. M. I. (4), and the co-authorship relationships can be seen in Figure 6 . Seraj, P. M. I published four articles (one in 2020 and three in 2021) focusing on the topic of a flipped classroom. The other author with four publications was Liu M., studying the problem of Chinese EFL students’ anxiety, respectively, in 2013, 2018, 2018, and 2021. Rao Z. made three publications on the issues of native and non-native English teachers in China in 2010, 2016, and 2020.

Figure 6. Density map of the key words.

Keyword Analysis

There were 1,049 keywords among the 361 sample documents, and only 49 keywords (2.88%) appeared more than five times after merging synonyms and deleting extraneous words. This indicates that the number of high-frequency keywords was relatively small, which reflects the relatively extensive content of ES research in the field of language education. Table 5 lists the top 10 keywords ordered by the frequency of occurrence apart from the retrieval words, among which the frequency of “ES skill” was the highest, accounting for 3.43%. The remaining keywords with a frequency greater than 10 were “speech recognition” (32), “College English” (26), “e-learning” (22), “computer-aided instruction” (19), “learning system” (14), “native-English speaking teachers” (13), anxiety (13), “oral communication” (12), “virtual reality” (11), and “artificial intelligence” (10). Obviously, the gap in frequency among keywords is not very large.

Table 5. The top 10 most frequently occurring keywords on English-speaking (ES) education in Scopus (2010–2021).

The bibliometric co-occurrence analysis of keywords provided a convenient way to assess the state of the research field and spot hot issues ( Chen, 2016 ; Mutira et al., 2021 ; Sun and Lan, 2021 ). Meanwhile, importantly, keyword co-occurrence analysis can reflect the viewpoints of core academic articles and may be beneficial for researchers trying to keep up with research trends in a certain area ( Li et al., 2016 ; Shoaib et al., 2021 ). Figure 6 shows the density of keywords that appeared more than 10 times; the brightness of the color represents the heat color of the keyword studied. The more studies, the brighter the color ( Van Eck and Waltman, 2020 ). The colors of the keywords “English speaking skill,” “college English,” “computer-aided learning instruction,” and “speech recognition” were brighter than others. The other keywords, such as “speaking anxiety” and “e-learning,” were also brighter. To some extent, these brighter keywords reflected the research hotspots in the field of ES education from 2010 to 2021 in Scopus.

Keyword cluster analysis reflected the topics to some extent ( Yang et al., 2017 ). After combining synonyms (e.g., oral English and spoken English; computer-aided learning and computer-aided instruction; and native and non-native ES teacher) and the deletion of non-sense words (e.g., human, priority journal, and education), the keywords except the retrieval terms “English speaking,” “oral English,” “English-speaking,” “spoken English,” “EFL,” “TESOL,” and “ESL” were categorized into seven clusters with three main topics, as seen in Figure 7 . The keywords with red color dealt with the application of ICT in ES education, including items such as artificial intelligence, automatic speech recognition, computer-aided instruction, correlation methods, deep learning, information science, learning system, machine learning, quality control, correlation methods, corrective feedback, ES learning, oral communication, etc. Cluster 2 dealt with the cognitive factors influencing students’ ES skills or performance, such as attitude, EFL, English speaking performance, ES skill, the flipped classroom, motivation, speaking anxiety, and teaching methods, of which flipped classroom as a teaching method had the highest frequency of occurrence. Clusters 3 and 4 dealt with the application of ICT in college ES education, covering topics such as e-learning, engineering education, English speaking, learning, virtual reality, big data, college English, and educational computing. Cluster 7 dealt with the assessment of pronunciation or others.

Figure 7. The network visualization map of co-occurrence of keywords.

Keyword Changes and the Enlightenment to Research Topics

Figure 8 reveals a change in the time distribution of topics. It was obvious that most of the light-colored nodes were close to the keyword “college English,” while there were only a few around the keywords “child,” “preschool,” and “adolescent” after 2016. This shows that college students had become the main subjects of ES education studies instead of young learners.

Figure 8. The overlay visualization map of keywords according to year.

Meanwhile, studies with keywords related to the application of ICT, such as “big data,” “artificial intelligence,” “flipped classroom,” “speech recognition system,” and “virtual reality” in ES education, were emerging as a focus of research. Academic ES also began to attract researchers’ attention. Some researchers started to consider the development of twenty first-century skills during ES education. In addition, light-colored nodes of the keywords concerning teaching and learning modes (“continuous development,” “teaching method,” “EMI,” “error correction,” etc.), cognitive factors (“students’ interests,” “anxiety,” “motivation,” etc.), language skills (“ES performance,” “communicative skills,” “accuracy,” “fluency,” etc.), and language knowledge (“pronunciation,” “grammar,” etc.) remained the focus of research.

Limitations

The interpretation of the review should be very cautious due to some limitations. First, bibliometric analysis is a literature review method based on big data technology rather than synthesized thematic analysis. The data were collected and analyzed through the software. Thus, the accuracy of this analysis method is highly dependent on that of the software. The second limitation refers to the database. Though Scopus has covered the majority of the publications on ES teaching and learning worldwide, there are still some publications that were not included in the research.

This historical review and bibliometric analysis sought to better understand the current state of the research field, trends, and emerging research topics on ES education from 2010 to 2021. The results show that there was an increasing trend in the number of publications in this area from 2010 to 2021 in Scopus, indicating that ES education studies remained a necessary research topic, although the research population was not large. Countries with an ESL or EFL context, such as China, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Saudi Arabia, paid more attention to the development of learners’ ES abilities and contributed more to ES education studies. However, the citation analysis revealed that native ES countries such as the United States, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and Canada, were the major authorities or origins of ES education studies, which can also be seen by author contributions. Country collaboration analysis showed that the United States, China, India, and Malaysia acted as hubs of contact, establishing overall relationships within the collaboration network. In addition, the analysis of author distribution and collaboration revealed that there were constantly new researchers entering this field, but the lack of authors focusing on ES education over the long term and sustained research was still a problem. Further exploration of keywords revealed that the hot research issues encompass communicative skills, language knowledge, assessment, teaching or learning methods, ICT-related applications, and cognitive factors. Rather than focusing on ES education for young and adolescent learners, researchers showed a preference for investigating ES education for college students, catering to the increasing requirements of oral international communication. Meanwhile, topics on ICT application, autonomous learning, academic ES ability, and twenty first-century learning skills are gradually becoming hot areas for the improvement of ES teaching and learning worldwide.

JW was the research designer and executor of this study, participated in and completed the data analysis, and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. RA and L-ML gave suggestions when necessary. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s Note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Acknowledgments

JW would like to express their gratitude to RA and L-ML who participated in this project.

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Keywords : English-speaking skills, bibliometric analysis, research trends, enlightenment, research state

Citation: Wang J, Abdullah R and Leong L-M (2022) Studies of Teaching and Learning English-Speaking Skills: A Review and Bibliometric Analysis. Front. Educ. 7:880990. doi: 10.3389/feduc.2022.880990

Received: 22 February 2022; Accepted: 01 June 2022; Published: 06 July 2022.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2022 Wang, Abdullah and Leong. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Rohaya Abdullah, [email protected]

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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A Run // on black study

University of California Santa Cruz

In response to an RTE editorial call for more postqualitative language and literacy studies, “A Run // on black study” is a performance in methodological pluralism, a postqualitative assemblage in two parts, a paper beside a paper. On one side, “A Run // on black study” preludes a poetic methodological departure, “A Series of Irreducible Reanimations, Seven Runs,” written beside it. Framed in cross-disciplinary projects in black study mostly in conversation with Fred Moten, Édouard Glissant, Saidiya Hartman, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, and Elizabeth McHenry, among others, the work of this double paper reframes my dissertation study of 8 or 9 years ago and ruminates on the work in poetic prolongation. “A Run // on black study” offers a theoretical context, defines “a run” as an antimethodological (and postqualitative) poetics in black study, and argues for an opaque retelling. Then the paper beside the paper, “A Series of Irreducible Reanimations, Seven Runs,” presents a nonreductive poetics of the data as a prose poem in seven parts.

Those of us who are given to black study serially return to this fugitive preoccupation. None of us can, and some of us would never, get away from it. Instead, we try to get away with it, get down with it, but it always runs away. There’s a logical fallacy concerning where it comes from and a wary negation of the wishful thought that, out of nowhere, it keeps on coming. —Fred Moten, 2018

So many of us who study the experiences of black students (and then, of course, in extension, the experiences of brown students, queer and gender-creative youth, differently abled youth, immigrant students and so on) in and outside academic environments do so while relying upon what Fred Moten (2018) calls “the regulative power of understanding,” or what I think of here as the limits of qualitative research methodologies. What use is it to report on how black and brown youth shape new worlds if we have to use old-world methods to talk about it?

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To get outside the trouble, to get beyond qualitative research and its limits, this double paper attempts to offer a new nonmethod, or an antimethodological thought experiment, to readers of Research in the Teaching of English who have already exhausted the limits of qualitative methods they learned in graduate school (Patel, 2019; Stornaiuolo et al., 2019). “A Run // on black study” is a performance and practice in otherwise (Crawley, 2020) language and literacy methodologies, a postqualitative assemblage in two parts, a paper beside a paper. “A Run // on black study” (the part you are reading now) preludes our methodological departure. The aim, on this conceptual side, is to situate the work to come — the body of poetic excess — in a black radical tradition of disruption, of being in excess beyond any regulatory apparatus of surveillance (Chandler, 2013; Judy, 2020; Moten, 2018). In order to talk about the excess, we need to practice making poetics. Think of “A Run // on black study” as a consort who lovingly introduces you to an unruly way of questioning, tarrying beside, and transcending qualitative research. Also, on this side of presumed clarity, I introduce “a run” as a surrealist means of translating data into something other than story. This antimethodological offering emerges as a poetics, in black study, which draws upon somatic knowledges—inherently black and indigenous, intuitive, decidedly artistic and sensual, improvisational. All the knowledges of a run emphasize movements and breathing, are situated in a former study whose outgrowth in the time between collecting the original data and years of rumination after has sprawled beyond the limits of qualitative research, and could be thought of as postqualitative. The poetics exceeds training, seeks to break the insufficient methodological tools we are given, and loves words too much to oversimplify them. The paper beside the paper, the secret inside the paper, “A Series of Irreducible Reanimations, Seven Runs” (the part to come), is a prose poem, a creative-philosophical enactment of a run, made possible through black study. In this nested piece I blur a single fragment derived from a series of phenomenological interviews (ife, 2016) into creative philosophical entanglement with a line from a poem written by black studies poet and critic Fred Moten. To get to the black opacity of this other paper, I have to situate you in the air from which it grew.

A Contextual (Under)Ground From 2012 to 2016, while a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, I studied histories of black education in the United States, the global practices of writing, the spatiotemporal repercussions of writing, from its fifteenth-century bureaucratic origins onward, in the lives of black people. Between 2014 and 2015 I interviewed seven black women, all undergraduates at the university, to learn about their relationships with writing and each other, how they moved inside and outside performance, and the underground performance and poetics spaces they designed and inhabited. One of the women described an incessant tension she felt, “of being trapped / and feeling free,” and the others all shared a version of the same sentiment. Initially I thought of this shared feeling as a code, in that reductionist qualitative analytical sense, and in the years after, I continue to hear it as a mantra. Of being trapped / and feeling free, they all wrote poetry, many of them wrote songs, and they all were performance artists. The interviews led to observations of a blues theater ensemble created by one of the women.

The aims and curiosities and questions of that study were curated in the air of the afterlives of slavery, drawn up “in the wake” (Sharpe, 2016) of an ongoing decade of highly publicized state-sanctioned killings of black people. I was reading Scenes of Subjection (Hartman, 1997) alongside translations of Being and Nothingness (Sartre, 1943/1984) and Being and Time (Heidegger, 1927/1962) at the time, thinking about the shared existential phenomena of creativity in the lives of Black women. Because I remain interested in the material practices black people create through the materialist imposition of settler colonialism, I was thinking then, as I still am now, about the origins of writing in a bureaucratic European sense (Goody, 1986), against the black origins of writing in a historic United States black literary society sense (McHenry, 2002). I was also thinking about the legacies of black women’s writing (performing, singing, making), from the eighteenth century on, and trying to bring those histories into relief with the seven black women, alive in the twenty-first century, who participated in my study.

I am certain I failed in my attempt to offer the sort of bodiless fugitive poetics (ife, 2021b) I have been obsessed with writing ever since. It was impossible to get somewhere new with the questions I asked, questions that upheld categories of human distinction—specifically of race and gender—and more, it was impossible to get there through qualitative research. Even at its furthest limits, my dissertation could only reify an escape narrative we all want to escape. We came together in the context of that study, through the heuristic of qualitative research, of researcher and research subject, or in the more thoughtful case as research participants, all bound in subjectivity. What I could not hear then, I hear now. We traded different versions of the same (runaway) slave narrative, this imposition we cannot reconcile or resolve. Or ongoing trauma, the woundedness of blackness-as-race, the intangible realness of our everyday fugitive relationships to these various whiteness-as-propertied institutions we are still bound inside (and toward, in service of). It is not surprising that my interviewees answered my questions enraged by their experiences of mundane (and spectacular) racism in the snow. This country is racist, as all its institutions are racist, as all the institutional practices are racist—this, the most basic situation, we already know. What I wanted to know—their practices as writers and performers—was eclipsed by my questions, questions that put too much emphasis on categorical difference. I asked them questions about their writing, only after (and while also) asking them questions about their subject position of black womanhood. As the issue of race and gender filled the air between us, less attention was given to their practice, more attention given to a seething, unseen sensation of rage. Maybe because they are all performers, perhaps they gave me what they thought I wanted to hear, or perhaps, too, because I have listening issues, I heard what I wanted to hear. It was so easy to catch wind of a lone, angry, blues woman, a type of one-woman show carried forth in ensemble, melancholia both real and feigned, an air of being above it all, yet still inside it. A narrative account of seven entangled individual lives, I brought together into one unified story. A hot mess I have been trying to sublimate into art ever since (ife, 2021b).

What I have been working on (and through) in the years since finishing my dissertation is a poetics of blackness, to say something new (or at least in a new register) about language and (im)materiality in the lives of black people, about processes and practices of writing and imagining, without having to defer to the overwrought categorical social experiments of race and gender, or any modes of knowledge production that keep those categories intact. What I listened to years ago in the snow, the stories of the seven women who participated in my study, cannot be reduced. Though qualitative research necessitates transparency, a clear view into the study through a rigorous analysis of data, there are some data that are too opaque, that which cannot be reduced, and as Édouard Glissant (1990/1997) says, I too, “clamor for the right to opacity” (p. 194). Of course, I did reduce the data into something legible, something clear, for the purposes of defending my dissertation. In “A Series of Irreducible Reanimations, Seven Runs,” I offer an alternative rendering, the opaque data, a sort of transmutation of the irreducible. Which is to say, I refract the limits inherent in my former qualitative research study, bend the metaphorical light in such a way that if it were an image, us in my office back then, our mostly queer black human flesh would appear less characteristic, less propertied, less categorical, less legible, less straightforward. To get outside basic understanding I use an opaque poetics. I am a black poet working through protracted struggle, attempting to write about black life by way of an insufficient semiotic system. I cannot feign clarity where clarity does not exist. I have to fold the data onto itself, lose the data, get down somewhere else through a poetics.

This black antimethodological impulse, to run // on theory.

I am black. I am a black poet. I work inside the academy.

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My work concerns itself with matters of blackness, poetics, transcendence, transience, duration, intimacy, improvisation, confinement, making, and fugitivity. I begin each day in gratitude for having woken up, again, fueled by the magnitude of my inherited imagination. Born inside this country, sixth or seventh or eighth generation (indigenous) black American, caught inside the air of the afterlives of enslavement, poor, of people who worked the fields, who could not read, whose melancholia endured, who could not write, until all these years later there was me, descendent, or ascendant heir to nothing other than everything. The molten sentiment writhes inside my flesh, the anger I have for knowing (and existing) beyond the time I am in, all of this informs my writing. There is nothing neutral in my methods, my practice, or my study.

I linger inside black study, a prolonged critique of Western civilization, a radical cross-disciplinary exegesis on everything and nothing. Black study troubles ideas of (global) black sociality, ideas of black life (its origins, its presences, and its futures), offers us creative ways of living otherwise in and through terror, in and through the imminence of escape (Moten, 2003, 2017, 2018). To engage in black study is to practice friendship. To practice black study is to lose oneself inside the surround of the work (below ground, in the air). In the years since gathering the interviews and artifacts and observations associated with my dissertation, I have lost myself inside the surround of the work. At the level of surround I participate in a collective critique and refusal of the ontological insinuation of qualitative methodologies that attempt to codify black life and make black life known.

I situate my work, most closely, beside the creative and philosophical works of Fred Moten. Since his first book, In the Break: The Aesthetics of the Black Radical Tradition, Moten (2003) has slowly, serially enlivened a theory (and, too, a nontheory) of blackness imbued with improvisation, feeling-with, working-with. “A Series of Irreducible Reanimations, Seven Runs” grew out of black study while I was lost inside the vastness of the fragment, “of being trapped / and feeling free” and the expanse inside Moten’s study.

In Stolen Life , Moten (2018) suggests that modernity is an ongoing imposition of blackness, of blackness-as-race. Rather than codify blackness in terms of human taxonomy, Moten studies blackness as abstraction—or everything other than race. As a poet I spend a lot of time contemplating blackness. To my mind, blackness is all and nothing, beyond our shared human condition, beyond flesh. It bothers me when someone attempts to reduce blackness, in that Kantian way, to modernity’s imposition of race and racism.

Sometimes I like to run around inside the worlds channeled through artists who are also black, as much as I like to play inside the worlds channeled by black artists who are not black. Do you see what I did there? Moten reminds me, too, how difficult it is to be representative of my own blackness, as someone who is black, as someone whose conceptions of blackness are more concerned with difference in terms of creativity than difference in terms of human social conditions. Blackness is always more than race, but modernity keeps us locked in categorical difference. It’s not that I want to get outside this collective bios/mythos of blackness—I love my blackness, whatever it is. It’s just that I want space to think about what black people are able to create inside this myth other than what people who study race and racism presuppose black life is capable of rendering. To Moten (2018), it is not blackness we must overcome—and I agree with him—but the regulatory apparatuses of surveillance in the lives of black people as a condition of modernity. It’s the (modern) way we are trained to think about (modern) research in the (modern) academy, that maintains this (modern) imposition of blackness-as-race.

As much as I want to move around the postmodern, the post-post-postmodern imagination, I cannot get outside what Moten (2018) says about postmodernity’s impossibility, that we cannot profess postmodernity until modernity (as blackness, as a fact of money, as a fact of property) is done. Is it even possible to do something called postqualitative research, too, if the nature of qualitative research is dependent upon the trouble, or the problem, or the struggle of blackness-as-race? Because the regulatory apparatuses of surveillance, inherent in qualitative research, maintain categorical difference, I want to run. What tools we inherit (and master) through modernity and its imposition of blackness-as-race are insufficient to the insurmountable task of moving beyond race and racism. The material condition of the black body has always been a matter of captivity, of money, of circulation. Moten (2018) says the necessary condition of modernity is to circulate, through slave narratives, those necessarily storied accounts of brutality in the lives of black people, the regulatory choreography of containment. The only ones who live outside this condition are the ones who can get outside the need to tell a story. I am beginning to suspect all the matter in literacy, the “bureaucratic origins of writing” (Goody, 1986) and documentation, is what troubles us. Our first run, if I can think black sociality in collectivity for a minute, was documented through the eighteenth-century origins of a black literary tradition. The black poetics of the eighteenth century shifted into a functional apparatus of escape in the nineteenth century (McHenry, 2002). What the black literary traditions of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries attempted to open has instead provided the ongoing brutal condition of black sociality, or the practice of writing black stories, black pain, as social currency, as actual money, as mechanisms of survival. Because I understand the legacies, the circumstances of blackness-as-race, then and now, I cannot undermine the work of nineteenth-century black writers. Yet I do want to trouble how we think about the black literary tradition—its origins, its intentions, its limits—what story we tell ourselves and our students about black literature. Elizabeth McHenry (2002) says the nineteenth-century black literary tradition emphasized moralizing, respectability, citizenship. Jonathan Osborne (2020) might say conservative black rhetoric, as it has flourished in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, was first imagined inside those nineteenth-century black literary societies whose struggle to get out led them into politics. And nineteenth century black sociality was purely a matter of politics. Or maybe this is just how I see it. Survival, the inadvertent conservative material consequence, or condition, of nineteenth-century black literary societies flows beyond politics too. Qualitative research methodologies, when used in studies that aim to humanize their black and brown subjects, no matter how radical, are inherently conservative. Black writers (literary and academic) are expected to reproduce, over and over, different versions of the same slave narrative. Or the impulse to tell a survival story within contemporary qualitative research studies is an ongoing materialist condition of modernism. We tell stories about the lives of poor black (and brown and otherwise other) youth and make money through these troubled stories and how close are we to thrivance? The thing is, story is dead, has always been dead. It was never interested in life or liberation, just money. Moten (2003, 2014, 2017, 2018) listens to this narrative—a recurring sound, a wailing black musical intonation, a blues tradition, a cut, an open wound the market cannot let go. And this sound of black imposition, as it floods the music market, is the highest-paid performance a black artist can aspire to. When my interviewees—who are poets and performance artists, many of them also singers and songwriters and actors and filmmakers—describe the tension of being trapped and feeling free, I consider the narrowness of the entertainment industry in this country (and also globally), I consider the expectation for black artists to create the soundscape and sensory apparatus for the entire world, I consider the entire project of black life as it was imagined on our behalf, wonder how to get beyond the necessity of constant entertainment and escape rooms. We cannot get outside modernity if we can only think, speak, write, or perform modern.

The trouble is, ethnographic history, its singular eye, looks out at all the black others, somewhere foreign in an open field, speculates inside a journal, uses the notes from the journal to build the study. Even the most radical studies, if they are qualitative in nature, emerge from the same primordial eye, the same archaic hand. And from these studies, a singular story of an eponymous “we”: we are never meant to transcend the social and financial circumstances we inherit at birth. We are prevented from moving. We are situated in constant struggle. We can only aspire to a myth of some future that will never come. We can only compete, agitate, infuriate, attempt to make, but we never really get anywhere. The air inside this story suffocates us, persists through regulatory apparatuses of capture. And those regulatory apparatuses of capture need us to perpetuate our sorry role in this sad story, need the story to perpetuate a financial enclosure, to perpetuate an agrarian economy. It’s like every time a black person’s life is looked at, prodded, then documented as troubled, the regulatory apparatus of capture grows a new limb, the afterlives of slavery is a perennial phantom limb.

What do I do with my knowledge of freedom, when I know freedom is not anything anyone can actually see? So much of what has been written about black people, or by black people, or analyzed in the lives of black people relies on a preoccupation with the racist condition of black sociality, with looking at and reproducing our material precondition as a mechanism of survival. Some of the most radical, delightful, thought-provoking studies in this journal on language and literacy in terms of black students, in terms of humanizing black students—like the critical work of my friends Gholnecsar Muhammad, Latrise Johnson, Sakeena Everett, Valerie Kinloch, Tanja Burkhard, Carlotta Penn, and Hanna Sullivan—are so clear, so clean, so precise, so survival-based (Everett, 2018; Johnson, 2017; Johnson & Sullivan, 2020; Kinloch et al., 2017; Muhammad, 2015). And clarity is what a strong qualitative study should aim for, right? These papers intend to open something else in terms of black life, or suggest a means of celebrating black life—and they do—but as I read these papers, as much as I am interested in the interventions they offer, I lose interest at their methodological epicenter not because the methods are underdeveloped, but because the methods are too sure of themselves, too compositionally sutured to surveillance, to a particular way of looking and seeing and talking about black life. And, because surveillance esteems itself through its precision, there is not enough mess or irreducibility to open something else in (and through) the work; there is not enough room to run around in (and beside and outside) the opaque data. I could say the same about so many other articles inside this journal, and know it is a matter of what Research in the Teaching of English sounds like, or how we speak to each other in these pages. After conducting all these studies on “humanizing,” “recentering,” “reclaiming,” and “celebrating,” polyvocality in the lives of young black and brown people, is it possible to redirect some of this insurgence back into our inherited methodologies, to trouble the methods, to refuse to participate in the type of banal surveillance which gazes at black people to teach presumed racial others something specific about black life? Can we do so using multiple, many-tongued, polyvocal ways of speaking from our data?

What I’m saying is, the entire project of ethnographic research, and by extension sociological qualitative research, and by extension social groups such as nineteenth-century black literary societies, and by extension contemporary radical qualitative research rely on (de)humanizing black life by way of grammar, by way of clinging to this lucid narrative tradition we are trained to use to frame our thinking. In our constant clarity, what is made apparent, over and over again, is our incessant preoccupation with human socialities and identities. Maybe our preoccupation with humanity (Wynter, 2003) is insufficient to our task of studying language and literacies in the twenty-first century. And I know it’s a weird statement, but perhaps it is possible to get deeper inside languages and literacies by “losing the categorical human” (ife, 2021b). I don’t know. Perhaps we can start to think more in terms of more-than-human, in terms of (im)materiality, not in terms of machines or electronic technologies, but in terms of what else our hypersentient flesh offers us, and how else we decide to talk (and not talk) about it. I want to engage with more secret studies in language and literacy, studies where a researcher invites black and brown students to shape new worlds and then the researcher refuses to show it clear, submits to opacity in order to save the participants from an external gaze, the possible infiltration or theft of those worlds through outside gazing. The thought of transcending modernity, of practicing otherwise, Moten and Harney (2013) remind us, is the work of the university, the task for those of us preoccupied in the depths of study, those of us in debt to our study. Inside all this debt, all I have is my propensity to study.

There are many ways to think about language and literacy, and for me, it is a matter of poetics. Poetics opens up possibilities toward something else, accessible through black studies. “I ran from it and was still in it” is a line from Moten’s (2014) poem of the same title, a line that haunts me in the same capacity as “of being trapped / and feeling free.” What optics did the multitude inside Moten’s poem run away from, and why are they still in it? What story do I tell my students about black life, and when and why do I tell it? Lately, I’ve been using words like surrealism , minimalism , recreation , and improvisational to introduce a way of thinking about black creativity as abstraction. I want all the everyday realism of what takes up so much space to leave, though it lingers. I ran from realism and live inside a radical overture of poetics—a mythic black orifice—nothing in my mundane existence lends itself to story.

To get beyond qualitative research, the methodological limitation of hermeneutics inherent in its design would have to go. We would have to run, or surrender to the realm of the unknown, what is not immediately clear, in order to transcend the limits of qualitative research, to get beyond surveillance, its violent imposition in the lives of black and brown (and all) people. Again, surrendering to the unknown, getting beyond qualitative research, is easy for me, because I am “against interpretation” (Sontag, 2009). I am a black poet. I work outside the academy. I want language and literacy research that opens a new feeling, not meaning. Is it possible to conduct qualitative research without subjecting the research participants to ongoing surveillance? Is it possible to do something other than write a story that makes sense? Is it possible to offer a feeling as the evidentiary basis of a qualitative study? I don’t know. All I have is my propensity to run. I run outside modernity, as part of my forfeiture of regulatory qualitative methods, in my refusal to submit to narrative. Inside a long run, I made something (a prose poem based on, or through, a phenomenological qualitative study), and I think of it as postqualitative.

It is easy for me to think outside an already established methodological framework because I practice making architectures of wind. I write poems. When I write poems I am lost inside deep study, inside opacity, which is to say my poems, as much as they emerge from nothing, are also informed by all the something in all the years of study (and witnessing) I am preoccupied with in between poems. My poetics is a matter of duration—not momentary flashes, but an ongoing intention to build a slow, sustained theory. Édouard Glissant (1969/2018), in Poetic Intention , says:

The poetics of duration, in that it opposes itself, enclosing it, to the flash of the instant, authorizes a level of expression (where the poem is no longer the sole and aristocratic reservoir, the only conduit of poetic knowledge) this repositioning of smothered deepened impositions of the relation. It suspends the imperiousness of speech, and in stages, in obscure and extracted strata, opens the being onto his lived relativities, suffered in the drama of the world. No it doesn’t reveal; it unveils with gravity. (p. 42)

Or this is what the translation (by Nathanaël) says. The poems I offer here, as a translation of data of a former research project, do not purport to know or reveal anything. The poems are unfinished because the sentiment, or the feeling in the matter of the interviews, is still with me. I know it is not everyone’s inclination to make meaning through poetry, and I do not think everyone should turn data into poetry. To trouble our methodologies does not call for an overreliance on that which we understand as poetry. To trouble our methods is to trouble how we think about humanity, our sense mechanisms, how we make our way through research, why we research, how we talk about our research, what we desire to immediately understand. For some people, troubling the methods might be possible through poetry. For others, it might emerge as a poetics, and for others, something else altogether.

This antimethodological impulse I have to run, this free-movement-based, somatic methodology, makes use of the body, relies on attention to the breath, then loses the body to access a sort of universal unconsciousness. A run is serially drawn out as an unending ritual in writing a prose poem (or series of prose poems), a process. The closest I can come to a sort of description of this antimethodological offering is to explain what a run is. A run, in simple musical terms, requires manipulation of breath to move up and down a series of scales. My use of “a run” borrows from this musical tradition, makes use of what is generally understood in meditation as focused breathing, practiced as stillness, for at least thirty minutes to an hour each day, doing nothing other than witnessing, feeling, and listening to air as it moves inside and outside the body. I began my meditation practice 10 or 11 years ago when I lived in the upper Midwest, not knowing it would provide an opening, a way to not only imagine but also listen to others, to “connect, create, share” a narrative in the tradition of indigenous research (Smith, 1999), outside the regulative limits of qualitative research. Paired with the breath, too, there is the necessity of losing one’s Self, of leaving, through an openness, what could also be understood as a sort of ritualistic dance—preferably at midnight, in the dark, when no one else is looking (ife, 2021b). Alexis Pauline Gumbs’s trilogy, also created by way of ritual, offers a black feminist way of breathing into data, and is a source of inspiration for my running around inside the previously analyzed data from my dissertation and presenting it as a poetics (Gumbs, 2016, 2018, 2020).

“A Series of Irreducible Reanimations, Seven Runs” makes use of a second-person pronoun, you, and collective pronoun, we, to suggest intimacy, to disorient the space between researcher and subject, to distort the space of who is speaking, to suggest a type of polyvocality, a many-tonguedness, even though everything is written in the monolinguistic register of this colonial language. The run in pronouns is a way of insinuating a sort of Black English, or black poetics, to erase the transcribed interview template where it is always clear, to the reader, who is speaking. Because I want to leave behind this propertied mode of speaking (in which a voice belongs to someone), of one person speaking at a time, and because I want to blur the spaces of (im)materiality we all had access to at the time of data collection and still have access to as artists, I use this complicated entanglement of a second personal pronoun with a deceptive collective pronoun. Part of how I make sense of you is in terms of thinking about what my research participants told me then, how I hear it now, but also more than that: some mythical, ubiquitous other, looming in shadow. We is even more difficult than you —in some cases, we is used to suggest us (researcher and subject) as a group. In other moments, we and you just live inside the time of the poem, as speakers congregating outside this physical plane, and in those cases, I cannot tell you who we and you refer to—they just are. I leave it up to the reader to make a way through these voices, to get down with them.

This double paper aims to contribute what I imagine as a series of necessary creative experiments in running (out, through, and) from our qualitative methods. The long durational mood of the afterlives of enslavement, this dreary episode we cannot get outside, I think about in terms of practicing a way out. I will continue to rely upon my imagination to find another way, because qualitative research, though it departs from quantitative empiricism, has its analytic origins in notational matters of (black) surveillance. I refuse to participate in the tradition of documenting black life, though I will strengthen (us all) by imagining otherwise. “A Series of Irreducible Reanimations, Seven Runs” goes beyond understanding; don’t try to understand it—get down with it, get down inside it.

Nothing is resolved in anything I write here, because the sort of existential turmoil I wander is not interested in resolution, though it is interested in slow duration, the drag, prolongation, the run-on sentence. The work here is unfinished, ongoing still. It is not my aim to solve, in a single essay, the problems of language and literacy, teaching and learning in the lives of black people in this country. I cannot. It is not my intention to solve or resolve anything. Instead I want to offer what might-could provide an opening for a larger creative collective thought experiment, beyond the scope of this single essay, perhaps a full issue in which clusters of language and literacy researchers, artists, activists, and teachers imagine others antimethodological “runs” in and through black study beyond what I can get to on my own.

The subliminal monastic looping of the fragment “of being trapped / and feeling free” I have held on to in the years since completing an unfulfilled study whose methods I could not let go. Years after, I am suspended in a postqualitative methodological feedback loop trying to talk about all the gravity in that sentiment, all the inherent blackness in that sentiment, all the fugitivity held inside the two sides of that sentiment. To keep the spirit of those interviews alive, I reanimate them, loop the double sentiments “of being trapped / and feeling free” with “I ran from it and was still in it,” serially burrow inside a perpetual sensation of escape. In place of an extensive showcase of data, interview transcriptions, descriptions, units of analysis, or interpretations, in the next section you will find a series of unresolved meditations—an imaginative, irreducible transcendence of the data. I can only tell you so much about what this nonmethodological run makes use of. The rest I have to show you:

A Series of Irreducible Reanimations, Seven Runs

I am foment. I speak blinglish. at work they call me but I don’t come. I come when she call me by my rightful name. I come to myself from far away just laid back in the open. I ran from it and was still in it. —Fred Moten, 2014

we want to imagine some green space | or articulate a surreal space we move inside | you as synesthetic | of different dimensions | from different interior regions | of this haptic blue we speak from time | of various external traumas the psychic turmoil of money (was money, still money, no money) | as it lingers in our time in site | almost as if we can taste it | our black entombed air mycelial where we run is mycelial | anabatic sensation | you who stand in for any version of we perform a series of suspensions or brass would shed a wisp of gold | when you whisper it | fury | cold reaches up and out enfolds you | furious you ask we to call you as our mama name | to tongue our we as you and want our we as jazz a blue light flickers in wicked largesse | preternatural luminary | or was it

you need only marvel | violet contrast | on one side light | other shadow | tell you want out this shit the violence we endure for money | remains of a mood with language | what words do or cannot do | what syntax | what murmur echolalia | what sound | what orifice | what taste we can enter | we is ahead of you because | word say we is ahead of you a race for theory inside a hollow inside an aura of black would not black want | sousaphone is a way of extenuation or is it ars poetica you run on and on & tablas is your syntax | the air the air

we listen to you speak as if time were amalgam | what you write black woman why you write black woman | how you write black woman | where you write black woman | when you write black woman | you and her and them and we ran off from it our secret incidents in the life of a body scrawls out air out fugitivity | not metaphoric wilderness as in we still here inside green the evergreen heart the echelon of soil | inside earth our bodies move above we our listless were it dead were it annotation were it a door inside a forest

steel is our annual adornment cerulean opening that is music | a little oud | a little sufi | ism in the music now a black city eats black people at dawn | a downy city a face for story a room inside nothing | supple | meant we show city to city make city glint | city flints us as we listen and maybe it is mystic | the what it is supplicant mythic | we lean into the disarticulation of ninety-nine degrees and murk out a joint ligature

what melancholy | what letters and arts | what future | future is a fomentation here inside this second | and it is bliss

you hand we a counterfeit bill | a book | a bone | ask if we want to kill you in another scene we break our arctic condition then gather a room i turn into peel back the brazen flesh where it hollows | it hollows inside our throat it opens and we speak ::

you is only black and human inside gold of interest in all this negative interest in blackness | or a limn you fear | a sound softens before market a song bristles forth a hymn | o electric black trap | is a hush condition of hermes | and sekhmet | what it is | is a condition of nefer | a shattered pink sarcophagus 1

A Return, an Ellipsis

When I was a poor black child I was so gone inside every public-gifted classroom I inhabited, something having to do with my neurological propensity to run and continue running. I was allowed this ongoing flight because I am quiet, because I am willful, because I am intelligent in a way affirmed in academic settings, and in excess too, because I am creative in a way refusing academic settings. I do not believe in intelligence, but I believe in making our own worlds. It is not the case for all black and brown youth, especially those who are loud, whose rage upsets their teachers. A run cannot tell us what black and brown youth are to make of the worlds they inherit, or what they might make on their own terms. A run is simply one example of methodological refusal. What more might we make? Poems are nothing other than air, breathing room (ife, 2021a). And what might we make of all this air? We (those of us invested in black study, those of us working inside and beside the academy) might renew our shared sense of what it means to “model with” and to “create with” black and brown youth as we lose our inherited mastery. What use is it to ask black and brown youth to celebrate their identities, to keep celebrating identity, then leave them in a world that demands their erasure, that steals their blackness (which is to say their uniqueness), that continues to make money off their circumstances? If I had an answer, we would be thriving inside poetic communes with no need for looking at, codifying, documenting, surveilling, or perpetuating the storied blackness. I have no answers. A run is an antimethodological practice in black study. I cannot do it alone. None of us can. Will you run with we?

• Thank you, Hiwot Adilow, Myriha Burton, Natalie Cook, Thiahera Nurse, Yolanda Pruitt, Zhalarina Sanders, and Taylor Scott, for sharing your stories with me. I love you.

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fahima ife is a poet, editor, and professor. They are author of Maroon Choreography (Duke University, 2021) and other works in other places. They are associate professor of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies at University of California Santa Cruz. They are contributing editor at Tilted House press in New Orleans. They are director of the fluid poetics studio, an ongoing audio project of the Redwood Forest.

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• v.7(9); 2021 Sep

Evidence-based reading interventions for English language learners: A multilevel meta-analysis

Associated data.

Data included in article/supplementary material/referenced in article.

The number of English Language Learners (ELLs) has been growing worldwide. ELLs are at risk for reading disabilities due to dual difficulties with linguistic and cultural factors. This raises the need for finding practical and efficient reading interventions for ELLs to improve their literacy development and English reading skills. The purpose of this study is to examine the evidence-based reading interventions for English Language Learners to identify the components that create the most effective and efficient interventions. This article reviewed literature published between January 2008 and March 2018 that examined the effectiveness of reading interventions for ELLs. We analyzed the effect sizes of reading intervention programs for ELLs and explored the variables that affect reading interventions using a multilevel meta-analysis. We examined moderator variables such as student-related variables (grades, exceptionality, SES), measurement-related variables (standardization, reliability), intervention-related variables (contents of interventions, intervention types), and implementation-related variables (instructor, group size). The results showed medium effect sizes for interventions targeting basic reading skills for ELLs. Medium-size group interventions and strategy-embedded interventions were more important for ELLs who were at risk for reading disabilities. These findings suggested that we should consider the reading problems of ELLs and apply the Tier 2 approach for ELLs with reading problems.

English language learners, Evidenced-based intervention, Meta-analysis, Reading.

1. Introduction

There is a growing body of literature that recognizes the importance of quality education for learners who study in a language other than their native language ( Estrella et al., 2018 ; Ludwig et al., 2019 ). As cultural, racial, ethnic, and linguistic diversification takes place globally, the number of students studying a second language different from their native language is also increasing worldwide. In the United States, nearly 5 million learners who are not native speakers of English are currently attending public schools, and this figure has increased significantly over the past decade ( NCES, 2016 ). As the number of children whose native language is not English increased, the need for educational support also increased. Furthermore, the implementation of NCLB policy emphasizes the need for quality education for all students included in all schools. Accordingly, NCLB has emerged as a critical policy for learners to study in their second language. In other words, there is an urgent need to ensure that non-native English speakers receive appropriate education due to NCLB, which has not only increased the demand for education but also led to the practice of enhanced education for learners whose English is not their native language.

ELLs (English language learners) refer to the education provided for learners whose native language is not English in English-speaking countries ( National Center for Education Statistics, 2021 ). The education provided to these ELLs is called ESL (English as a second language), ESOL (English to speakers of other languages), EFL (English as a foreign language), and so on. Each term is adopted differently depending on the policy, purpose, and status of operation of the state and/or school district. While a variety of terms have been suggested, this paper uses the term ‘ELLs’ to refer to learners who are not native speakers of English and uses the terms ‘the English education program’ and the ‘ELL program’ to refer to the English education program provided to ELLs.

To ensure quality education, students identified as ELLs can participate in supportive programs to improve their English skills. These ELL programs can be broadly divided into two methods: “pull-out” and “push-in” ( Honigsfeld, 2009 ). In the pull-out program, students are taken to a specific space other than the classroom at regular class time and are separately taught English. In the push-in program, the ELL teacher joins the mainstream ELLs’ classroom and assists them during class time. Through these educational supports, ELLs are required to achieve not only English language improvements addressed in Title III of NCLB but also language art achievements appropriate to their grade level addressed in Title I of NCLB. ELLs are expected to achieve the same level of academic achievement as students of the same grade level, as well as comparable language skills.

A considerable amount of literature has been published on the achievement and learning status of ELLs ( Ludwig, 2017 ; Soland and Sandilos, 2020 ). These studies revealed that despite the intensive, high-quality education support for ELLs, they encounter difficulties learning and academic achievement. The National Reading Achievement Test (NAEP) results show that the achievement gap between non-ELLs and ELLs is steadily expanding in the areas of both mathematics and reading ( Polat et al., 2016 ). Ultimately, ELLs are reported to have the highest risk of dropping out of school ( Sheng et al., 2011 ). These difficulties are not limited to early school age. Fry (2007) reported that the results from a national standardized test of 8th-grade students found that ELLs performed lower than white students in both reading and math. Callahan and Shifrer (2016) analyzed data from a nationally representative educational longitudinal study in 2002 and found that, despite taking into account language, socio-demographic and academic factors, ELLs still have a large gap in high school academic achievement. Additionally, research has suggested that ELLs are less likely to participate in higher education institutions compared to non-ELL counterparts ( Cook, 2015 ; Kanno and Cromley, 2015 ).

Factors found to influence the difficulties of ELLs in learning have been explored in several studies ( Dussling, 2018 ; Thompson and von Gillern, 2020 ; Yousefi and Bria, 2018 ). There are two main reasons for these difficulties. First, ELLs face many challenges in learning a new language by following the academic content required in the school year ( American Youth Policy Forum, 2009 ). Moreover, language is an area that is influenced by sociocultural factors, and learning academic contents such as English language art and math are also influenced by sociocultural elements and different cultural backgrounds, which affects the achievement of ELLs in school ( Chen et al., 2012 ; Orosco, 2010 ). Second, it is reported that the heterogeneity of ELLs makes it challenging to formulate instructional strategies and provide adequate education for them. Due to the heterogeneous traits in the linguistic and cultural aspects of the ELL group, there are limitations in specifying and guiding traits. Therefore, properly reflecting their characteristics is difficult.

The difficulties for ELLs in academic achievement raise the necessity for searching practical and efficient reading interventions for ELLs to improve English language and academic achievement, including ELLs' English language art achievement. These needs and demands led to the conduct of various studies that analyze the difficulties of ELLs. Over the past decade, these studies have provided important information on education for ELLs. The main themes of the studies are difficulties in academic achievement and interventions for ELLs, including reading ( Kirnan et al., 2018 ; Liu and Wang, 2015 ; Roth, 2015 ; Shamir et al., 2018 ; Tam and Heng, 2016 ), writing ( Daugherty, 2015 ; Hong, 2018 ; Lin, 2015 ; nullP ) or both reading and math ( Dearing et al., 2016 ; Shamir et al., 2016 ). The influences of teachers on children's guidance ( Kim, 2017 ; Daniel and Pray, 2017 ; Téllez and Manthey, 2015 ; Wasseell, Hawrylak, Scantlebuty, 2017 ) and the influences of family members ( Johnson and Johnson, 2016 ; Walker, Research on 2017 ) are also examined.

Reading is known to function as an important predictor of success not only in English language art itself but also in overall school life ( Guo et al., 2015 ). This is because reading is conducted throughout the school years, as most of the activities students perform in school are related to reading. Furthermore, reading is considered one of the major fundamental skills in modern society because it has a strong relationship with academic and vocational success beyond school-based learning ( Lesnick et al., 2010 ). In particular, for ELLs, language is one of the innate barriers; thereafter, reading is one of the most common and prominent difficulties in that it is not done in their native language ( Rawian and Mokhtar, 2017 ; Snyder et al., 2017 ). In this respect, several studies have investigated reading for ELLs. These studies explore effective interventions and strategies ( Kirnan et al., 2018 ; Mendoza, 2016 ; Meredith, 2017 ; Reid and Heck, 2017 ) and suggest reading development models or predictors for reading success ( Boyer, 2017 ; Liu and Wang, 2015 ; Rubin, 2016 ). For these individual studies to provide appropriate guidance to field practitioners and desirable suggestions for future research, aggregation of the overall related studies, not only of the individual study, and research reflections based on them are required. Specifically, meta-analysis can be an appropriate research method. Through meta-analysis, we can derive conclusions from previous studies and review them comprehensively. Furthermore, meta-analysis can ultimately contribute to policymakers and decision-makers making appropriate decisions for rational strategies and policymaking.

Although extensive research has been carried out on the difficulties of ELLs and how to support them, a sufficiently comprehensive meta-analysis of these studies has not been carried out. Some studies have focused on specific interventions, such as morphological interventions ( Goodwin and Ahn, 2013 ), peer-mediated learning ( Cole, 2014 ), and video game-based instruction ( Thompson and von Gillern ). Ludwig, Guo, and Georgiou (2019) demonstrated the effectiveness of reading interventions for ELLs. However, they divided reading-related variables into “reading accuracy”, “reading fluency”, and “reading comprehension” and examined the effectiveness of the reading-related attributes in each of the variables. Therefore, the study has limitations for exploring the various aspects of reading and their effectiveness for reading interventions.

Individual studies have their characteristics and significance. However, for individual studies to be more widely adopted in the field and to be a powerful source for future research, it is necessary to analyze these individual studies more comprehensively. Meta-analysis reviews past studies related to the topic by 'integrating' previous studies, analyzes and evaluates them through 'critical analysis', provides implications to the field, and gives rise to intellectual stimulation to future studies by ‘identifying issues’ ( Cooper et al., 2019 ). Through this, meta-analysis can be a useful tool for diagnosing the past where relevant research has been conducted, taking appropriate treatment for the present, and providing intellectual stimulation for future studies.

Therefore, the purposes of this study are to examine evidence-based reading interventions for ELLs presented in the literature to analyze their effects and to identify the actual and specific components for creating the most effective and efficient intervention for ELLs. The findings of this study make a major contribution to research on ELLs by demonstrating the implications for the field and future study.

2.1. Selection of studies

A meta-analysis of peer-reviewed articles on ELL reading interventions published between January 2008 and March 2018 was conducted. According to the general steps of a meta-analysis, data related to reading interventions for English language learners were collected as follows. First, educational and psychological publication databases, such as Google Scholar ( https://scholar.google.co.kr ), ERIC ( https://eric.ed.gov/ ), ELSEVIER ( http://www.elsevier.com ), and Springer ( https://www.springer.com/gp ) were used to find the articles to be analyzed using the search terms “ELLs,” ESL,” “Reading,” “Second language education,” “Effectiveness,” and “Intervention” separately and in combination with each other. We reviewed the results of the web-based search for articles and included all relevant articles on the preliminary list. We selected the final list of the articles to be analyzed by applying inclusion and exclusion criteria to the preliminary list of articles. Studies were included in the final list based on three primary criteria. First, each study should evaluate the effectiveness of a school-based reading intervention using an experimental or quasi-experimental group design. In this process, single case, qualitative, and/or descriptive studies for ELLs were excluded from the analysis. Second, we included all types of reading-related interventions (i.e., phonological awareness, word recognition, reading fluency, vocabulary, and reading comprehension). Third, each study needed to report data in a statistical format to calculate an effect size. Fourth, we only included studies whose subjects were in grades K-12. The preliminary list had 75 articles, but since some of these studies did not meet the inclusion criteria, we excluded them from the final list for analysis. In total, this meta-analysis included 28 studies with 234 effect sizes (see Figure 1 ).

Prisma flow diagram.

2.2. Data analysis

2.2.1. coding procedure.

To identify the relevant components of the evidence-based reading interventions for ELLs, we developed an extensive coding document. Our interest was in synthesizing the effect sizes and finding the variables that affect the effectiveness of reading interventions for ELLs. The code sheet was made based on a code sheet used in Vaughn et al. (2003) and Wanzek et al. (2010) . All studies were coded for the following: (a) study characteristics, including general information about the study, (b) student-related variables, (c) intervention-related variables, (d) implementation-related variables, (e) measurement-related variables, and (f) quantitative data for the calculation of effect sizes.

Within the study characteristics category, we coded the researchers’ names, publication year, and title from each study to identify the general information about each study. For the student-related variables, mean age, grade level(s), number of participants, number of males, number of females, sampling method, exceptionality type (reading ability level), identification criteria in case of learning disabilities, race/ethnicity, and SES were coded. We divided grade level(s) into lower elementary (K-2), upper elementary (3–5), and secondary (6–12). When students with learning disabilities participated in the study, we coded the identification criteria reported in the study. For race/ethnicity, we coded white, Hispanic, black, Asian, and others. Within intervention-related variables, we coded for the title of the intervention, the key instructional components of the intervention, the type of intervention, and the reading components of the intervention. The reading components coded were phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, reading comprehension, listening comprehension, and others. If an intervention contained multiple reading components, all reading components included in the intervention were coded. Fourth, within implementation-related variables, we coded group size, duration of the intervention (weeks), the total number of sessions, frequency of sessions per week, length of each session (minutes), personnel who provided the intervention (i.e., teacher, researchers, other), and the setting. Fifth, in measurement-related variables, we coded the title of the measurement, reliability coefficient, validity coefficient, type of measurement, type of reliability, and type of validity. We also coded quantitative data such as the pre- and posttest means, the pre- and posttest standard deviations, and the number of participants in the pre- and posttests for both the treatment and control groups. These coding variables are defined in Table 1 . The research background and sample information are in Appendix 1 .

Table 1

Coding variables.

2.2.2. Coding reliability

The included articles were coded according to the coding procedure described above. Two researchers coded each study separately and reached 91% agreement. Afterward, the researchers reviewed and discussed the differences to resolve the initial disagreements.

2.2.3. Data analysis

First, we calculated 234 effect sizes from the interventions included in the 28 studies. The average effect size was calculated using Cohen's d formula. In addition, we conducted a two-level meta-analysis through multilevel hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) using the HLM 6.0 interactive mode statistical program to analyze the computed effect sizes and find the predictors that affect the effect sizes of reading interventions. HLM is appropriate to quantitatively obtain both overall summary statistics and quantification of the variability in the effectiveness of interventions across studies as a means for accessing the generalizability of findings. Moreover, HLM easily incorporates the overall mean effect size using the unconditional model, and HLM is useful to explain variability in the effectiveness of interventions between studies in the conditional model. The aim of the current study is to provide a broad overview of interventions for ELLs. To achieve this aim, we conducted an unconditional model for overall mean effect size and conducted a conditional model to identify factors that have an impact on the strength of effect sizes. In regard to variables related to the effectiveness of interventions, we conducted a conditional model with student-related, measurement-related, intervention-related, and implementation-related variables. In the case of quantitative meta-analyses, it is assumed that observations are independent of one another ( How and de Leeuw, 2003 ). However, this assumption is usually not applied in social studies if observations are clustered within larger groups ( Bowman, 2003 ) because each effect size within a study might not be homogeneous ( Beretvas and Pastor, 2003 ). Thus, a two-level multilevel meta-analysis using a mixed-effect model was employed because multiple effect sizes are provided within a single education study. To calculate effect size (ES) estimates using Cohen's d, we use the following equation [1]:

The pooled standard deviation, SD pooled , is defined as

In HLM, the unconditional model can be implemented to identify the overall effect size across all estimates and to test for homogeneity. If an assumption of homogeneity is rejected by an insignificant chi-square coefficient in the unconditional model, this means that there are differences within and/or between studies. This assumption must go to the next step to find moderators that influence effect sizes. This step is called a level two model or a conditional model. A conditional model is conducted to investigate the extent of the influence of the included variables.

The level one model (unconditional model) was expressed as [3], and the level two model (the conditional model was expressed as [4].

In equation (3) , δ j represents the mean effect size value for study j, and e j is the within-study error term assumed to be theoretically normally distributed with a mean of 0 and a variance of V j . In the level two model equation [4], γ 0 represents the overall mean effect size for the population, and u j represents the sampling variability between studies presumed to be normally distributed with a mean of 0 and a variance τ .

Regarding publication bias, we looked at the funnel plot with the 'funnel()' command of the metafor R package ( Viechtbauer, 2010 ), and to verify this more statistically, we used the dmetar R package ( Harrer et al., 2019 ). Egger's regression test ( Egger et al., 1997 ) was conducted using the 'eggers.test()' command to review publication bias. Egger's regression analysis showed that there was a significant publication error (t = 3.977, 95% CI [0.89–2.54], p < .001). To correct this, a trim-and-fill technique ( Duval and Tweedie, 2000 ) was used. As a result, the total effect size corrected for publication bias was also calculated. The funnel plot is shown in [ Figure 2 ].

Funnel plot.

We analyzed 28 studies to identify influential variables that count for reading interventions for ELLs. Before performing the multilevel meta-analysis, the effect size of 28 studies was analyzed by traditional meta-analysis. The forest plots for the individual effect sizes of 28 studies are shown in Appendix 2. We present our findings with our research questions as an organizational framework. First, we showed an unconditional model for finding the overall mean effect size. Then, we described the variables that influenced the effect size of reading interventions for ELLs using a conditional model.

3.1. Unconditional model

An unconditional model of the meta-analysis was tested first. In the analysis, restricted maximum likelihood estimation was used. This analysis was conducted to confirm the overall mean effect size and to examine the variability among all samples. The results are shown in Table 2 .

Table 2

Results of the unconditional model analysis.

∗∗∗ p < 0.001, df: degree of freedom.

The intercept coefficient in the fixed model is the overall mean effect size from 234 effect sizes. This means that the effect of reading intervention for English language learners is medium based on Cohen's d. Cohen's d is generally interpreted as small d = 0.2, medium d = 0.5 and large d = 0.8. The variance component indicates the variability among samples. The estimate was 0.589 and remained significant (χ 2 = 1245.90, p < . 001). This statistical significance means that moderator analysis with dominant predictors in a model is required to explore the source of variability.

3.2. Conditional model

Moderator analysis using the conditional model was expected to identify factors that have an impact on the strength of effect sizes. In this study, the moderator analysis was administered by nine critical variable categories: students’ grade, exceptionality, SES, reading area, standardized test, test reliability, intervention type, instructor, and group size. Variables in each category were coded by dummy coding. Dummy coding was used to identify the difference in dependent variables between the categories of independent variables. For example, we used four dummy variables to capture the five dimensions. The parameter estimates capture the differences in effect sizes between the groups that are coded 1 and a reference group that is coded 0. From a mathematical perspective, it does not matter which categorical variable is used as the referenced group ( Frey, 2018 ). We labeled one variable in each category as a reference group to make the interpretation of the results easier. We used an asterisk mark to denote the reference group for each category; if a word has an asterisk next to it, this indicates that it is the reference group for that category.

• 1) Student-related variables

The results of the conditional meta-analysis for students' grade variables are presented in Table 3 . In Table 3 , the significant coefficients mean that mean effect sizes are significantly larger for studies in reference conditions. For student grades, upper elementary students showed significantly larger mean effect sizes than secondary students (2.720, p = 0.000), but preschool students showed significantly lower mean effect sizes than secondary students (-0.103, p = 0.019). The Q statistic was significant for students’ grades ( Q = 27.20, p < 0.001) (see Table 4 ).

Table 3

Results of the moderator analysis for student grade.

df: degree of freedom.

Table 4

Results of the moderator analysis for exceptionality.

For the student-related variables, students with low achievement showed significantly larger mean effect sizes scores than general students (0.707, p = 0.001). However, there was no significant difference between students with low achievement and general students. The Q statistic was significant for students’ exceptionality ( Q = 0.0278, p < 0.001).

Table 5 shows that low and low-middle SES was not significantly different from students with no information about SES (0.055, p = 0.666). Moreover, students with middle and upper SES did not have significantly smaller effect sizes than students with nonresponse (-0.379, p = 0.444). The Q statistic was significant for students’ SES ( Q = 68.50, p < 0.001).

Table 5

Results of the moderator analysis for SES.

• 2) Measurement-related variables

Table 6 shows the results of the moderator analysis for measurement types. The coefficient for the standardized measurement-related variable was not significant. The Q statistic was significant for the standardization of measurement tools ( Q = 5.28, p < 0.001).

Table 6

Results of the moderator analysis for standardization of measurement tools.

Table 7 shows the results of the moderator analysis for the reliability of the measurement tools. The coefficient for the measurement reliability-related variable was significant (0.409, p = 0.003), which means that the effect sizes of measurements that reported reliability (ES = 0.770) were significantly larger than the effect sizes of measurements that had information about reliability (ES = 0.361). The Q statistic was significant for the reliability of the measurement tools ( Q = 5.82, p < 0.001) (see Table 8 ).

Table 7

Results of the moderator analysis for reliability.

Table 8

Results of the moderator analysis for content of the intervention.

• 3) Intervention-related variables

The content of the intervention was divided into phonological awareness, reading fluency, vocabulary, reading comprehension, listening comprehension, and other areas. Studies measured other areas that functioned as a reference group. For the measurement area, all reading areas were significantly larger than other areas. Reading fluency (1.150, p = 0.001), reading comprehension (0.971, p = 0.000) and listening comprehension (0.834, p = 0.002) were significantly larger than those in the other areas. However, phonological awareness and vocabulary were significantly larger than other areas but lower than reading fluency, reading comprehension, and listening comprehension (0.528, p = 0.013; 0.442, p = 0.000). The Q statistic was significant for the content of the intervention ( Q = 24.005, p < 0.001).

For intervention types, strategy instruction, peer tutoring, and computer-based learning were compared to other methods, which were fixed as a reference group. Table 9 shows that strategy instruction was significantly larger than other methods in mean effect sizes (0.523, p = 0.001). However, studies that applied peer tutoring and computer-based learning showed lower than other methods, but these differences were not statistically significant (-0.113, p = 0.736; -0114, p = 0.743). The Q statistic was significant for intervention types ( Q = 73.343, p < 0.001).

Table 9

Results of the moderator analysis for intervention types.

• 4) Implementation-related variables

For instructor-related variables, other instructor-delivered instructions were assigned as a reference group. Table 10 shows that the teacher and researcher groups showed significantly larger than the other instructors. Moreover, the teacher group showed larger than the researcher group (0.909, p = 0.000). The Q statistic was significant for instructor-related variables ( Q = 14.024, p < 0.001).

Table 10

Results of the moderator analysis for instructor.

For group size, mixed groups were fixed as a reference group. Group size variables were divided into a small group (1 or more and 5 or less), a middle group (6 or more and 15 or less), and a large group or class size (16 or more). Table 11 shows that the middle group (6 or more and 15 or less) and the small group (1 or more and 5 or less) were significantly larger than the mixed group (0.881, p = 0.000; 0.451, p = 0.006). However, the difference between the large group and the mixed group was not significant (0.120, p = 0.434). The Q statistic was significant for group size variables ( Q = 17.756, p < 0.001).

Table 11

Results of the moderator analysis for group size.

4. Discussion

The purpose of this meta-analysis was to explore the effects of reading interventions for ELLs and to identify research-based characteristics of effective reading interventions for enhancing their reading ability. To achieve this goal, this study tried to determine the answers to two research questions. What is the estimated mean effect size of reading interventions for ELLs in K-12? To what extent do student-, intervention-, implementation-, and measurement-related variables have effects on improving the reading ability of ELLs in K-12? Therefore, our study was limited to recent K-12 intervention studies published between January 2008 and March 2018 that included phonological awareness, fluency, vocabulary, reading comprehension, and listening comprehension as intervention components and outcome measures. A total of 28 studies were identified and analyzed. To inquiry the two main research questions, a two-level meta-analysis was employed in this study. For the first research question, the unconditional model of HLM was conducted to investigate the mean effect size of reading interventions for ELLs. The conditional model of HLM was conducted to determine which variables have significant effects on reading interventions for ELLs. Below, we briefly summarized the results of this study and described the significant factors that seem to influence intervention effectiveness. These findings could provide a better understanding of ELLs and support implications for the development of reading interventions for ELLs.

4.1. Effectiveness of reading interventions for ELLs

The first primary finding from this meta-analysis is that ELLs can improve their reading ability when provided appropriate reading interventions. Our findings indicated that the overall mean effect size of reading interventions of ELLs yielded an effect size of 0.653, which indicates a medium level of effect. From this result, we can conclude that the appropriate reading interventions generally have impacts on reading outcomes for ELLs in K-12. This is consistent with prior syntheses reporting positive effects of reading interventions for ELLs ( Vaughn et al., 2006 ; Abraham, 2008 ).

Effect size information is important to understand the real effects of the intervention. Therefore, this finding indicated that supplementary reading interventions for ELLs will be developed and implemented. This finding also showed that states are required to develop a set of high-quality reading interventions for ELLs. Language interventions for ELLs have become one of the most important issues in the U.S. Increasing numbers of children in U.S. schools have come from homes in which English is not the primary language spoken. NCES (2016) showed that 4.9 million students, or 9.6% of public school students, were identified as ELLs, which was higher than the 3.8 million students, or 8.1%, identified in 2000 ( NCES, 2016 ). While many students of immigrant families succeed in their academic areas, too many do not. Some ELLs lag far behind native English speakers in the school because of the strong effect of language factors on the instruction or assessment. Although English is not their native language, ELLs should learn educational content in English. This leads to huge inequity in public schools. Thus, improving the English language and literacy skills of ELLs is a major concern for educational policymakers. This finding can support practitioners’ efforts and investments in developing appropriate language interventions for ELLs.

4.2. The effects of moderating variables

The second primary finding of this meta-analysis relates to four variable categories: student-, intervention-, implementation-, and measurement-related variables. Effective instruction cannot be designed by considering one factor. The quality of instruction is the product of many factors, including class size, the type of instructions, and other resources. This finding showed which factors affected the effectiveness of reading interventions. Specifically, we found that the variables that proved to have significant effects on reading outcomes of ELLs were as follows: upper elementary students, reliable measurement tools, reading and listening comprehension-related interventions, strategy instruction, and the middle group consisting of 6 or more and 15 or less. Teachers and practitioners in the field may choose to adopt these findings into their practices. ELL teachers may design their instruction as strategy-embedded instruction in middle-sized groups.

We found that grades accounted for significant variability in an intervention's effectiveness. Specifically, we found that reading interventions were substantially more effective when used with upper elementary students than secondary students. This means that the magnitude of an intervention's effectiveness changed depending on when ELLs received reading interventions. Specifically, the larger effect sizes on upper elementary students than secondary schools showed the importance of early interventions to improve ELLs' language abilities. Students who experience early reading difficulty often continue to experience failure in later grades. ELLs, or students whose primary language is other than English and are learning English as a second language, often experience particular challenges in developing reading skills in the early grades. According to Kieffer (2010) , substantial proportions of ELLs and native English speakers showed reading difficulties that emerged in the upper elementary and middle school grades even though they succeeded in learning to read in the primary grades.

Regarding students’ English proficiency and academic achievement, there was no statistically significant difference between students with low achievement and general students. Given the heterogeneity of the English language learner population, interventions that may be effective for one group of English language learners may not be effective with others ( August and Shanahan, 2006 ). This result is similar to the results achieved by Lovett et al. (2008) . Lovett et al. (2008) showed that there were no differences between ELLs and their peers who spoke English as a first language in reading intervention outcomes or growth intervention. This finding suggests that systematic and explicit reading interventions are effective for readers regardless of their primary language.

For students' socioeconomic status (SES), there was no significant difference between the low-middle group and the nonresponse group. However, we cannot find that students' SES is critical for implementing reading interventions. Low SES is known to increase the risk of reading difficulties because of the limited access to a variety of resources that support reading development and academic achievement ( Kieffer, 2010 ). Many ELLs attend schools with high percentages of students living in poverty ( Vaughn et al., 2009 ). These schools are less likely to have adequate funds and resources and to provide appropriate support for academic achievement ( Donovan and Cross, 2002 ). Snow, Burns and Griffin (1998) highlighted multiple and complex factors that contribute to poor reading outcomes in school, including a lack of qualified teachers and students who come from poverty. Although this study cannot determine the relationship between the effectiveness of reading interventions and the SES of students, more studies are needed. In addition, these results related to students’ characteristics showed that practitioners and teachers can consider for whom to implement some interventions. Researchers should provide a greater specification of the student samples because this information will be particularly critical for English language learners.

Although many of the studies measured a variety of outcomes across all areas of reading, interventions that focused on improving reading comprehension and listening comprehension obtained better effects than other reading outcomes. This result is similar to those discussed in previous findings ( Wanzek and Roberts, 2012 ; Carrier, 2003 ).

With regard to effective intervention types, the findings indicated that strategy instruction was statistically significant for improving the reading skills of ELLs. However, computer-based interventions, which are frequently used for reading instruction for ELLs in recent years, showed lower effect sizes than mixed interventions. Strategy instructions are known as one of the effective reading interventions for ELLs ( Proctor et al., 2007 ; Begeny et al., 2012 ; Olson and Land, 2007 ; Vaughn et al., 2006 ). These strategies included activating background knowledge, clarifying vocabulary meaning, and expressing visuals and gestures for understanding after reading. Some studies have shown that computer-based interventions are effective for ELLs ( White and Gillard, 2011 ; Macaruso and Rodman, 2011 ), but this study does not. Therefore, there is little agreement in the research literature on how to effectively teach reading to ELLs ( Gersten and Baker, 2000 ). Continued research efforts must specify how best to provide intervention for ELLs.

With respect to the implementation of the intervention, teachers and researchers as instructors would produce stronger effects than other instructors. In this study, multiple studies showed that various instructors taught ELLs, including teachers, graduate students, and researchers. The professional development of instructors is more important than that of those who taught ELLs. This finding is consistent with Richards-Tutor et al. (2016) . They also did not find differences between researcher-delivered interventions and school personnel-delivered interventions. Continuing professional development should build on the preservice education of teachers, strengthen teaching skills, increase teacher knowledge of the reading process, and facilitate the integration of newer research on reading into the teaching practices of classroom teachers ( Snow et al., 1998 ). Overall, professional development is the key factor in strengthening the reading skills of ELLs.

This study showed that medium-sized groups of 6 or more and 15 or less had larger effect sizes than the mixed groups. In addition, the medium-sized group showed a larger effect size than the small group of 5 or less. This finding showed that a multi-tiered reading system should be needed in the general classroom. This finding is linked to the fact that the reaction to intervention (RTI) approach is more effective for ELLs. Linan-Thompson et al. (2007) pointed out that RTI offers a promising alternative for reducing the disproportionate representation of culturally and linguistically diverse students in special education by identifying students at risk early and providing preventive instruction to accelerate progress. Regarding interventions for ELLs who are struggling with or at risk for reading difficulties, Ross and Begeny (2011) compared the effectiveness between small group interventions and implementing the intervention in a 1/1 context for ELLs. They showed that nearly all students benefitted from the 1/1 intervention, and some students benefitted from the small group intervention. This finding is commensurate with a previous study investigating the comparative differences between group sizes and suggests research-based support for the introduction of the RTI approach.

However, most implementation-related variables, including duration of intervention, the total number of sessions, frequency per week, length of each session, settings, and instructor, did not have any significant effect on the reading ability of ELLs. That is, ELLs are able to achieve their reading improvement regardless of the duration of intervention, where they received the reading intervention, and who taught them. This finding is similar to those discussed by Snyder et al. (2017) . They also synthesized the related interventions for ELLs and showed that the length of intervention did not seem to be directly associated with overall effect sizes for reading outcomes. This finding is also the same as recent research on intervention duration with native English speakers ( Wanzek et al., 2013 ). Wanzek and colleagues examined the relationship between student outcomes and hours of intervention in their meta-analysis. The findings showed no significant differences in student outcomes based on the number of intervention hours. Elbaum et al. (2000) stated that the intensity of the interventions is most important for effectiveness. Our results somewhat support these researchers’ opinions, but we cannot be certain that a brief intervention would have the same overall effect on reading outcomes as a year-long intervention. Thus, we should consider the intervention intensity, such as student attendance at the sessions, with the duration of the intervention.

4.3. Implications for practice and for research

The most effective and efficient education refers to education that is made up in the right ways, that includes proper content, and that is delivered on time so that the students can benefit the most. To implement this, research to identify a particular framework based on the synthesis of research results through meta-analysis, such as this study, must be conducted. Furthermore, the implications based on the results must be deeply considered. In this respect, important implications for the practice and research of practitioners, researchers, and policymakers on enhancing reading competence for ELLs of this study are as follows.

First, reading interventions for ELLs are expected to be the most efficient when conducted on a medium-sized group of 6–15 students. This indicates that implementing reading interventions for ELLs requires a specially designed group-scale configuration rather than simply a class-wide or one-to-one configuration. Second, the implementation of reading interventions for ELLs is most effective when conducted for older elementary school students. This is in contrast to Morgan and Sideridis (2006) , who demonstrated the characteristics of students with learning disabilities using multilevel meta-analysis and showed that age groups were irrelevant in the effect size of reading interventions for students with learning disabilities. Therefore, it can be seen that the ELLs group, unlike the learning disability group, the students of which have reading difficulty due to their disabilities, is in the normal development process but has reading difficulty due to linguistic differences. Accordingly, it can be seen that the senior year of elementary school, in which a student has been exposed to the academic environment for a sufficiently long time and language is sufficiently developed, is the appropriate time for learning English for ELLs. Third, effective reading interventions for ELLs should be performed with a strategy-embedded instruction program. This is based on the fact that strategic instructions are effective for vocabulary or concepts in unfamiliar languages ( Carlo et al., 2005 ; Chaaya and Ghosn, 2010 ).

The above implications require the implementation of Tier 2 interventions for reading interventions for ELLs in practice. In Tier 2 interventions, students can participate in more intensive learning through specially designed interventions based on their personal needs ( Ortiz et al., 2011 ). In other words, in policymaking and administrative decision-making, intensive education programs for ELLs who have been exposed to the academic environment for a certain period but still have reading difficulties, including having achievements that fall short of the expected level, are needed.

Considering further applications, these findings could guide practitioners and policymakers to develop effective evidence-based reading programs or policies. The significant variables in this study can be considered to develop new programs for ELLs.

Declarations

Author contribution statement.

All authors listed have significantly contributed to the development and the writing of this article.

Funding statement

This work was supported by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2020S1A3A2A02103411).

Data availability statement

Declaration of interests statement.

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Additional information

No additional information is available for this paper.

Appendix A. Supplementary data

The following is the supplementary data related to this article:

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What the Research Says on Instruction for English Learners Across Subject Areas

It takes multiple years for English learners to gain a high enough level of language proficiency to perform on par with their native English‐speaking peers. English learners cannot wait until they are fluent in English to learn grade‐level content. Instead, they must continue to develop their math and reading skills as well as their knowledge of social studies and science, even while learning English. This can happen through a variety of program models.

Our librarians recently compiled this list of recent studies and articles on teaching practices, programs and protocols for English learner instruction to help students meet the academic demands of state standards and close the achievement gap.

Check out the research-based principles we share in a companion resource titled, “What All Teachers Should Know About Instruction For English Language Learners.” See additional principles that apply to teachers in specific subject areas: language arts , mathematics , social studies and science .

For Teaching in All Classrooms

Teaching academic content and literacy to english learners in elementary and middle school (2014).

This practice guide from the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) and the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) provides four recommendations that address reading and content area instruction for English learners.

Each recommendation includes extensive examples of activities that can be used to support students as they build the language and literacy skills needed to be successful in school, including examples of how the recommendations align with Common Core and other contemporary state standards. The recommendations also summarize and rate supporting evidence. This guide is geared toward teachers, administrators and other educators who want to improve instruction in academic content and literacy for English learners in elementary and middle school.

High-Leverage Principles of Effective Instruction for English learners. From College and Career Ready Standards to Teaching and Learning in the Classroom: A Series of Resources for Teachers (2016)

The purpose of this resource is to provide teachers of English learner students with effective, high-leverage learning and teaching principles that can be incorporated into daily instructional plans and routines. Instruction that addresses students' needs should include four key considerations included in the resource.

A Review of the Literature on Teaching Academic English to English Language Learners (2014)

Academic English refers to the language used in school to help students acquire and use knowledge. This article reviews current literature to determine what is known about the nature of academic English within the context of K–12 schooling with a focus on English learners. The article raises critical challenges in defining and operationalizing academic English for instruction and suggests areas for further inquiry.

Converging Recommendations for Culturally Responsive Literacy Practices: Students with Learning Disabilities, English Language Learners and Socioculturally Diverse Learners (2015)

This study examines culturally responsive pedagogy across the fields including multicultural literacy education and teaching English learners. Educators are encouraged to adopt a critical and responsive stance that incorporates students' cultural knowledge and lived experiences when implementing these recommendations. Creating classrooms that promote culturally responsive and effective instruction is grounded in the definition of literacy as a social practice and leads to more equitable learning opportunities in all areas.

Principles of Effective English Language Learner Pedagogy (2012)

This literature review identifies the most effective instructional principles for English learners as documented by prominent researchers in the field and existing research reviews. The review lists the most effective principles for English learner instruction and documents the supporting research evidence for those principles.

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For Teaching Reading, Writing and Language Arts

Effective literacy and english language instruction for english learners in the elementary grades (2007).

This IES/WWC practice guide provides five evidence-based recommendations for improving the reading achievement and English language development of elementary-level English learner students. The target audience for this guide is a broad spectrum of school practitioners such as administrators, curriculum specialists, coaches, staff development specialists and teachers who face the challenge of providing effective literacy instruction for English language learners in the elementary grades. The guide also aims to reach district-level administrators who develop practice and policy options for their schools.

Bridging English Language Learner Achievement Gaps through Effective Vocabulary Development Strategies (2016)

This research paper conducted a review of philosophical and scholarly literature which displayed evidence that vocabulary development is a major section that educators should consider focusing for better achievement with English as Second Language students. Implementing educational practices that promote high-frequency vocabulary learning were found to be effective strategies. The paper includes recommendations for administrators and education professionals in various learning environments.

The Effectiveness of Reading Interventions for English Learners: A Research Synthesis (2016)

This article reviews published experimental studies from 2000 to 2012 that evaluated the effects of providing reading interventions to English learners who were at risk for experiencing academic difficulties, including students with learning disabilities. The interventions in these studies included explicit instruction and 10 used published intervention programs. Moderator variables, such as group size, minutes of intervention and type of personnel delivering the intervention, were not significant predictors of outcomes.

Developing Literacy in English Language Learners: Findings From a Review of the Experimental Research (2014)

This commentary reviews the available data on optimal approaches to reading instruction for ELL students, covering the components of literacy (decoding, oral reading fluency, vocabulary and writing) as well as key issues such as differentiating instruction, repetition and reinforcement, scaffolding and capitalizing on a student's first language strengths. We conclude with implications for school psychologists, who are often among the first professionals to be consulted as schools attempt to identify and provide appropriate educational services for these students.

Effective Practices for Developing Literacy Skills of English Language Learners in the English Language (2012)

This literature review presents instructional strategies that have proven to be effective in envisioning what "all" teachers need to know and be able to do to teach English language arts to English learners. Three areas of effective practice are emphasized. The first area is that teachers should recognize that literacy skills in English learners' native languages might influence the ways in which they process linguistic information in English. The second area highlights the argument that teachers should find ways to facilitate English learners' mastery of academic vocabulary. The third area covers the significance of enhancing English learners metacognitive reading skills. The review also discusses two broad pedagogical skills that emerge from both the normative and empirical studies reviewed and are closely related: (a) the teachers' ability to help ELLs construct meaning from the texts or speech represented in the language arts classroom and (b) the teachers' ability to engage English learners in actively learning to read and write.

For Teaching Math, Science and Social Studies

Sheltered instruction observation protocol - what works clearinghouse intervention report (2013).

The Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol is a framework for planning and delivering instruction in content areas such as science, history and mathematics to English learners as well as other students. This review focuses on research that examines its impact on the learning of English language learners in grades K-8.

Instruction for English Language Learners in the Social Studies Classroom: A Meta-synthesis (2016)

This paper reviews the extant literature on English learners in the social studies classroom. Discussion of the findings provides three primary implications: (1) the need for linguistically and culturally responsive instruction for English learners in social studies classes, (2) the need for increased training for inservice and preservice social studies teachers in preparation for teaching English learners and (3) the need for future research among English learners in the social studies context.

Language Challenges in Mathematics Education: A literature Review (2016)

It is now accepted that language and mathematics are connected in mathematics learning and teaching and, the potential challenges of language in mathematics have been investigated by a number of researchers. This paper reviews research by applied linguists and mathematics educators to highlight the linguistic challenges of mathematics and suggests pedagogical strategies to help learners in mathematics classrooms. Research on pedagogical practices supports developing mathematics knowledge through attention to the way language is used, suggesting strategies for moving students from informal, everyday ways of talking about mathematics into the registers that construe more technical and precise meanings.

Teacher Education That Works: Preparing Secondary-Level Math and Science Teachers for Success with English Language Learners through Content-Based Instruction (2014)

This article reports on the effects of a program restructuring that implemented coursework specifically designed to prepare pre-service and in-service mathematics, science and ESL teachers to work with English learners in their content and ESL classrooms through collaboration between mainstream STEM and ESL teachers, as well as effective content and language integration. The article presents findings on teachers' attitudes and current practices related to the inclusion of English learners in the secondary-level content classroom and their current level of knowledge and skills in collaborative practice.

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Research Topics & Ideas: Education

170+ Research Ideas To Fast-Track Your Project

If you’re just starting out exploring education-related topics for your dissertation, thesis or research project, you’ve come to the right place. In this post, we’ll help kickstart your research topic ideation process by providing a hearty list of research topics and ideas , including examples from actual dissertations and theses..

PS – This is just the start…

We know it’s exciting to run through a list of research topics, but please keep in mind that this list is just a starting point . To develop a suitable education-related research topic, you’ll need to identify a clear and convincing research gap , and a viable plan of action to fill that gap.

If this sounds foreign to you, check out our free research topic webinar that explores how to find and refine a high-quality research topic, from scratch. Alternatively, if you’d like hands-on help, consider our 1-on-1 coaching service .

Overview: Education Research Topics

• How to find a research topic (video)
• List of 50+ education-related research topics/ideas
• List of 120+ level-specific research topics 
• Examples of actual dissertation topics in education
• Tips to fast-track your topic ideation (video)
• Free Webinar : Topic Ideation 101
• Where to get extra help

Education-Related Research Topics & Ideas

Below you’ll find a list of education-related research topics and idea kickstarters. These are fairly broad and flexible to various contexts, so keep in mind that you will need to refine them a little. Nevertheless, they should inspire some ideas for your project.

• The impact of school funding on student achievement
• The effects of social and emotional learning on student well-being
• The effects of parental involvement on student behaviour
• The impact of teacher training on student learning
• The impact of classroom design on student learning
• The impact of poverty on education
• The use of student data to inform instruction
• The role of parental involvement in education
• The effects of mindfulness practices in the classroom
• The use of technology in the classroom
• The role of critical thinking in education
• The use of formative and summative assessments in the classroom
• The use of differentiated instruction in the classroom
• The use of gamification in education
• The effects of teacher burnout on student learning
• The impact of school leadership on student achievement
• The effects of teacher diversity on student outcomes
• The role of teacher collaboration in improving student outcomes
• The implementation of blended and online learning
• The effects of teacher accountability on student achievement
• The effects of standardized testing on student learning
• The effects of classroom management on student behaviour
• The effects of school culture on student achievement
• The use of student-centred learning in the classroom
• The impact of teacher-student relationships on student outcomes
• The achievement gap in minority and low-income students
• The use of culturally responsive teaching in the classroom
• The impact of teacher professional development on student learning
• The use of project-based learning in the classroom
• The effects of teacher expectations on student achievement
• The use of adaptive learning technology in the classroom
• The impact of teacher turnover on student learning
• The effects of teacher recruitment and retention on student learning
• The impact of early childhood education on later academic success
• The impact of parental involvement on student engagement
• The use of positive reinforcement in education
• The impact of school climate on student engagement
• The role of STEM education in preparing students for the workforce
• The effects of school choice on student achievement
• The use of technology in the form of online tutoring

Level-Specific Research Topics

Looking for research topics for a specific level of education? We’ve got you covered. Below you can find research topic ideas for primary, secondary and tertiary-level education contexts. Click the relevant level to view the respective list.

Research Topics: Pick An Education Level

Primary education.

• Investigating the effects of peer tutoring on academic achievement in primary school
• Exploring the benefits of mindfulness practices in primary school classrooms
• Examining the effects of different teaching strategies on primary school students’ problem-solving skills
• The use of storytelling as a teaching strategy in primary school literacy instruction
• The role of cultural diversity in promoting tolerance and understanding in primary schools
• The impact of character education programs on moral development in primary school students
• Investigating the use of technology in enhancing primary school mathematics education
• The impact of inclusive curriculum on promoting equity and diversity in primary schools
• The impact of outdoor education programs on environmental awareness in primary school students
• The influence of school climate on student motivation and engagement in primary schools
• Investigating the effects of early literacy interventions on reading comprehension in primary school students
• The impact of parental involvement in school decision-making processes on student achievement in primary schools
• Exploring the benefits of inclusive education for students with special needs in primary schools
• Investigating the effects of teacher-student feedback on academic motivation in primary schools
• The role of technology in developing digital literacy skills in primary school students
• Effective strategies for fostering a growth mindset in primary school students
• Investigating the role of parental support in reducing academic stress in primary school children
• The role of arts education in fostering creativity and self-expression in primary school students
• Examining the effects of early childhood education programs on primary school readiness
• Examining the effects of homework on primary school students’ academic performance
• The role of formative assessment in improving learning outcomes in primary school classrooms
• The impact of teacher-student relationships on academic outcomes in primary school
• Investigating the effects of classroom environment on student behavior and learning outcomes in primary schools
• Investigating the role of creativity and imagination in primary school curriculum
• The impact of nutrition and healthy eating programs on academic performance in primary schools
• The impact of social-emotional learning programs on primary school students’ well-being and academic performance
• The role of parental involvement in academic achievement of primary school children
• Examining the effects of classroom management strategies on student behavior in primary school
• The role of school leadership in creating a positive school climate Exploring the benefits of bilingual education in primary schools
• The effectiveness of project-based learning in developing critical thinking skills in primary school students
• The role of inquiry-based learning in fostering curiosity and critical thinking in primary school students
• The effects of class size on student engagement and achievement in primary schools
• Investigating the effects of recess and physical activity breaks on attention and learning in primary school
• Exploring the benefits of outdoor play in developing gross motor skills in primary school children
• The effects of educational field trips on knowledge retention in primary school students
• Examining the effects of inclusive classroom practices on students’ attitudes towards diversity in primary schools
• The impact of parental involvement in homework on primary school students’ academic achievement
• Investigating the effectiveness of different assessment methods in primary school classrooms
• The influence of physical activity and exercise on cognitive development in primary school children
• Exploring the benefits of cooperative learning in promoting social skills in primary school students

Secondary Education

• Investigating the effects of school discipline policies on student behavior and academic success in secondary education
• The role of social media in enhancing communication and collaboration among secondary school students
• The impact of school leadership on teacher effectiveness and student outcomes in secondary schools
• Investigating the effects of technology integration on teaching and learning in secondary education
• Exploring the benefits of interdisciplinary instruction in promoting critical thinking skills in secondary schools
• The impact of arts education on creativity and self-expression in secondary school students
• The effectiveness of flipped classrooms in promoting student learning in secondary education
• The role of career guidance programs in preparing secondary school students for future employment
• Investigating the effects of student-centered learning approaches on student autonomy and academic success in secondary schools
• The impact of socio-economic factors on educational attainment in secondary education
• Investigating the impact of project-based learning on student engagement and academic achievement in secondary schools
• Investigating the effects of multicultural education on cultural understanding and tolerance in secondary schools
• The influence of standardized testing on teaching practices and student learning in secondary education
• Investigating the effects of classroom management strategies on student behavior and academic engagement in secondary education
• The influence of teacher professional development on instructional practices and student outcomes in secondary schools
• The role of extracurricular activities in promoting holistic development and well-roundedness in secondary school students
• Investigating the effects of blended learning models on student engagement and achievement in secondary education
• The role of physical education in promoting physical health and well-being among secondary school students
• Investigating the effects of gender on academic achievement and career aspirations in secondary education
• Exploring the benefits of multicultural literature in promoting cultural awareness and empathy among secondary school students
• The impact of school counseling services on student mental health and well-being in secondary schools
• Exploring the benefits of vocational education and training in preparing secondary school students for the workforce
• The role of digital literacy in preparing secondary school students for the digital age
• The influence of parental involvement on academic success and well-being of secondary school students
• The impact of social-emotional learning programs on secondary school students’ well-being and academic success
• The role of character education in fostering ethical and responsible behavior in secondary school students
• Examining the effects of digital citizenship education on responsible and ethical technology use among secondary school students
• The impact of parental involvement in school decision-making processes on student outcomes in secondary schools
• The role of educational technology in promoting personalized learning experiences in secondary schools
• The impact of inclusive education on the social and academic outcomes of students with disabilities in secondary schools
• The influence of parental support on academic motivation and achievement in secondary education
• The role of school climate in promoting positive behavior and well-being among secondary school students
• Examining the effects of peer mentoring programs on academic achievement and social-emotional development in secondary schools
• Examining the effects of teacher-student relationships on student motivation and achievement in secondary schools
• Exploring the benefits of service-learning programs in promoting civic engagement among secondary school students
• The impact of educational policies on educational equity and access in secondary education
• Examining the effects of homework on academic achievement and student well-being in secondary education
• Investigating the effects of different assessment methods on student performance in secondary schools
• Examining the effects of single-sex education on academic performance and gender stereotypes in secondary schools
• The role of mentoring programs in supporting the transition from secondary to post-secondary education

Tertiary Education

• The role of student support services in promoting academic success and well-being in higher education
• The impact of internationalization initiatives on students’ intercultural competence and global perspectives in tertiary education
• Investigating the effects of active learning classrooms and learning spaces on student engagement and learning outcomes in tertiary education
• Exploring the benefits of service-learning experiences in fostering civic engagement and social responsibility in higher education
• The influence of learning communities and collaborative learning environments on student academic and social integration in higher education
• Exploring the benefits of undergraduate research experiences in fostering critical thinking and scientific inquiry skills
• Investigating the effects of academic advising and mentoring on student retention and degree completion in higher education
• The role of student engagement and involvement in co-curricular activities on holistic student development in higher education
• The impact of multicultural education on fostering cultural competence and diversity appreciation in higher education
• The role of internships and work-integrated learning experiences in enhancing students’ employability and career outcomes
• Examining the effects of assessment and feedback practices on student learning and academic achievement in tertiary education
• The influence of faculty professional development on instructional practices and student outcomes in tertiary education
• The influence of faculty-student relationships on student success and well-being in tertiary education
• The impact of college transition programs on students’ academic and social adjustment to higher education
• The impact of online learning platforms on student learning outcomes in higher education
• The impact of financial aid and scholarships on access and persistence in higher education
• The influence of student leadership and involvement in extracurricular activities on personal development and campus engagement
• Exploring the benefits of competency-based education in developing job-specific skills in tertiary students
• Examining the effects of flipped classroom models on student learning and retention in higher education
• Exploring the benefits of online collaboration and virtual team projects in developing teamwork skills in tertiary students
• Investigating the effects of diversity and inclusion initiatives on campus climate and student experiences in tertiary education
• The influence of study abroad programs on intercultural competence and global perspectives of college students
• Investigating the effects of peer mentoring and tutoring programs on student retention and academic performance in tertiary education
• Investigating the effectiveness of active learning strategies in promoting student engagement and achievement in tertiary education
• Investigating the effects of blended learning models and hybrid courses on student learning and satisfaction in higher education
• The role of digital literacy and information literacy skills in supporting student success in the digital age
• Investigating the effects of experiential learning opportunities on career readiness and employability of college students
• The impact of e-portfolios on student reflection, self-assessment, and showcasing of learning in higher education
• The role of technology in enhancing collaborative learning experiences in tertiary classrooms
• The impact of research opportunities on undergraduate student engagement and pursuit of advanced degrees
• Examining the effects of competency-based assessment on measuring student learning and achievement in tertiary education
• Examining the effects of interdisciplinary programs and courses on critical thinking and problem-solving skills in college students
• The role of inclusive education and accessibility in promoting equitable learning experiences for diverse student populations
• The role of career counseling and guidance in supporting students’ career decision-making in tertiary education
• The influence of faculty diversity and representation on student success and inclusive learning environments in higher education

Education-Related Dissertations & Theses

While the ideas we’ve presented above are a decent starting point for finding a research topic in education, they are fairly generic and non-specific. So, it helps to look at actual dissertations and theses in the education space to see how this all comes together in practice.

Below, we’ve included a selection of education-related research projects to help refine your thinking. These are actual dissertations and theses, written as part of Master’s and PhD-level programs, so they can provide some useful insight as to what a research topic looks like in practice.

• From Rural to Urban: Education Conditions of Migrant Children in China (Wang, 2019)
• Energy Renovation While Learning English: A Guidebook for Elementary ESL Teachers (Yang, 2019)
• A Reanalyses of Intercorrelational Matrices of Visual and Verbal Learners’ Abilities, Cognitive Styles, and Learning Preferences (Fox, 2020)
• A study of the elementary math program utilized by a mid-Missouri school district (Barabas, 2020)
• Instructor formative assessment practices in virtual learning environments : a posthumanist sociomaterial perspective (Burcks, 2019)
• Higher education students services: a qualitative study of two mid-size universities’ direct exchange programs (Kinde, 2020)
• Exploring editorial leadership : a qualitative study of scholastic journalism advisers teaching leadership in Missouri secondary schools (Lewis, 2020)
• Selling the virtual university: a multimodal discourse analysis of marketing for online learning (Ludwig, 2020)
• Advocacy and accountability in school counselling: assessing the use of data as related to professional self-efficacy (Matthews, 2020)
• The use of an application screening assessment as a predictor of teaching retention at a midwestern, K-12, public school district (Scarbrough, 2020)
• Core values driving sustained elite performance cultures (Beiner, 2020)
• Educative features of upper elementary Eureka math curriculum (Dwiggins, 2020)
• How female principals nurture adult learning opportunities in successful high schools with challenging student demographics (Woodward, 2020)
• The disproportionality of Black Males in Special Education: A Case Study Analysis of Educator Perceptions in a Southeastern Urban High School (McCrae, 2021)

As you can see, these research topics are a lot more focused than the generic topic ideas we presented earlier. So, in order for you to develop a high-quality research topic, you’ll need to get specific and laser-focused on a specific context with specific variables of interest.  In the video below, we explore some other important things you’ll need to consider when crafting your research topic.

Get 1-On-1 Help

If you’re still unsure about how to find a quality research topic within education, check out our Research Topic Kickstarter service, which is the perfect starting point for developing a unique, well-justified research topic.

70 Comments

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Special education

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Research title related to students

My field is research measurement and evaluation. Need dissertation topics in the field

Assalam o Alaikum I’m a student Bs educational Resarch and evaluation I’m confused to choose My thesis title please help me in choose the thesis title

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You can find our list of nursing-related research topic ideas here: https://gradcoach.com/research-topics-nursing/

Write on action research topic, using guidance and counseling to address unwanted teenage pregnancy in school

Thanks a lot

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parental involvement and students academic performance

Science education topics?

plz tell me if you got some good topics, im here for finding research topic for masters degree

How about School management and supervision pls.?

Hi i am an Deputy Principal in a primary school. My wish is to srudy foe Master’s degree in Education.Please advice me on which topic can be relevant for me. Thanks.

Thank you so much for the information provided. I would like to get an advice on the topic to research for my masters program. My area of concern is on teacher morale versus students achievement.

Every topic proposed above on primary education is a starting point for me. I appreciate immensely the team that has sat down to make a detail of these selected topics just for beginners like us. Be blessed.

Kindly help me with the research questions on the topic” Effects of workplace conflict on the employees’ job performance”. The effects can be applicable in every institution,enterprise or organisation.

Greetings, I am a student majoring in Sociology and minoring in Public Administration. I’m considering any recommended research topic in the field of Sociology.

I’m a student pursuing Mphil in Basic education and I’m considering any recommended research proposal topic in my field of study

Research Defense for students in senior high

Kindly help me with a research topic in educational psychology. Ph.D level. Thank you.

Project-based learning is a teaching/learning type,if well applied in a classroom setting will yield serious positive impact. What can a teacher do to implement this in a disadvantaged zone like “North West Region of Cameroon ( hinterland) where war has brought about prolonged and untold sufferings on the indegins?

I wish to get help on topics of research on educational administration

I wish to get help on topics of research on educational administration PhD level

I am also looking for such type of title

I am a student of undergraduate, doing research on how to use guidance and counseling to address unwanted teenage pregnancy in school

the topics are very good regarding research & education .

Am an undergraduate student carrying out a research on the impact of nutritional healthy eating programs on academic performance in primary schools

Can i request your suggestion topic for my Thesis about Teachers as an OFW. thanx you

Would like to request for suggestions on a topic in Economics of education,PhD level

Would like to request for suggestions on a topic in Economics of education

Hi 👋 I request that you help me with a written research proposal about education the format

Am offering degree in education senior high School Accounting. I want a topic for my project work

l would like to request suggestions on a topic in managing teaching and learning, PhD level (educational leadership and management)

request suggestions on a topic in managing teaching and learning, PhD level (educational leadership and management)

I would to inquire on research topics on Educational psychology, Masters degree

I am PhD student, I am searching my Research topic, It should be innovative,my area of interest is online education,use of technology in education

request suggestion on topic in masters in medical education .

Look at British Library as they keep a copy of all PhDs in the UK Core.ac.uk to access Open University and 6 other university e-archives, pdf downloads mostly available, all free.

May I also ask for a topic based on mathematics education for college teaching, please?

Please I am a masters student of the department of Teacher Education, Faculty of Education Please I am in need of proposed project topics to help with my final year thesis

Am a PhD student in Educational Foundations would like a sociological topic. Thank

please i need a proposed thesis project regardging computer science

Greetings and Regards I am a doctoral student in the field of philosophy of education. I am looking for a new topic for my thesis. Because of my work in the elementary school, I am looking for a topic that is from the field of elementary education and is related to the philosophy of education.

Masters student in the field of curriculum, any ideas of a research topic on low achiever students

In the field of curriculum any ideas of a research topic on deconalization in contextualization of digital teaching and learning through in higher education

Amazing guidelines

I am a graduate with two masters. 1) Master of arts in religious studies and 2) Master in education in foundations of education. I intend to do a Ph.D. on my second master’s, however, I need to bring both masters together through my Ph.D. research. can I do something like, ” The contribution of Philosophy of education for a quality religion education in Kenya”? kindly, assist and be free to suggest a similar topic that will bring together the two masters. thanks in advance

Hi, I am an Early childhood trainer as well as a researcher, I need more support on this topic: The impact of early childhood education on later academic success.

I’m a student in upper level secondary school and I need your support in this research topics: “Impact of incorporating project -based learning in teaching English language skills in secondary schools”.

Although research activities and topics should stem from reflection on one’s practice, I found this site valuable as it effectively addressed many issues we have been experiencing as practitioners.

Your style is unique in comparison to other folks I’ve read stuff from. Thanks for posting when you have the opportunity, Guess I will just book mark this site.

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Are Mississippi schools doing better or worse? Find out

Gov. tate reeves tweeted his praise for ms schools. was he correct.

Mississippi showed all-time highs for public elementary and secondary school test scores in math and English, but decreases in biology and U.S. history.

The Mississippi State Board of Education announced the state’s latest standardized test scores in its monthly meeting on Thursday. 

Gov. Tate Reeves tweeted about the test scores Thursday afternoon.

“Mississippi students have now achieved record results in mathematics, English Language Arts, and science!” he wrote . “Mississippi is growing stronger in virtually every area, and education is no exception.”

Scores reached an all-time high from the 2023-2024 school year with 56.3% proficiency in Math and 47.8% in English. Math scores increased at all grade levels except grades three and four. English scores increased in proficiency for all grades except for grades five and six.

However, even though English scores overall were higher than previous years, English II scores showed significant decline, dropping by 3.9%.

Mississippi State Board of Education Chief Accountability Officer Paula Vanderford said the English II decline was particularly concerning and that she would be working with the assessment team to figure out the root cause of the decline.

More on education in MS: Did Mississippi schools violate a federal act? Read more

For science scores, the testing is divided into grade five, grade eight and biology. While grade five and grade eight increased in proficiency, biology showed a mild decrease. 

Scores for U.S. history also saw a dip in 2024 compared to 2023, declining by 0.5% overall. 

More on higher ed: Jackson State acquires additional housing to address shortage. See where

The dips in biology and U.S. history, Vanderford said, were marginal and not statistically significant.

“While we don't want to ever see any decline, even that small amount of decline raises concerns for us, we just have to keep in mind what is statistically significant versus what it's not,” Vanderford added.

How To Tackle The Weirdest Supplemental Essay Prompts For This Application Cycle

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Writing the college essay

How do you write a letter to a friend that shows you’re a good candidate for the University of Pennsylvania? What reading list will help the Columbia University admissions committee understand your interdisciplinary interests? How can you convey your desire to attend Yale by inventing a course description for a topic you’re interested in studying?

These are the challenges students must overcome when writing their supplemental essays . Supplemental essays are a critical component of college applications—like the personal statement, they provide students with the opportunity to showcase their authentic voice and perspective beyond the quantitative elements of their applications. However, unlike the personal essay, supplemental essays allow colleges to read students’ responses to targeted prompts and evaluate their candidacy for their specific institution. For this reason, supplemental essay prompts are often abstract, requiring students to get creative, read between the lines, and ditch the traditional essay-writing format when crafting their responses.

While many schools simply want to know “why do you want to attend our school?” others break the mold, inviting students to think outside of the box and answer prompts that are original, head-scratching, or downright weird. This year, the following five colleges pushed students to get creative—if you’re struggling to rise to the challenge, here are some tips for tackling their unique prompts:

University of Chicago

Prompt: We’re all familiar with green-eyed envy or feeling blue, but what about being “caught purple-handed”? Or “tickled orange”? Give an old color-infused expression a new hue and tell us what it represents. – Inspired by Ramsey Bottorff, Class of 2026

What Makes it Unique: No discussion of unique supplemental essay prompts would be complete without mentioning the University of Chicago, a school notorious for its puzzling and original prompts (perhaps the most well-known of these has been the recurring prompt “Find x”). This prompt challenges you to invent a new color-based expression, encouraging both linguistic creativity and a deep dive into the emotional or cultural connotations of color. It’s a prompt that allows you to play with language, think abstractly, and show off your ability to forge connections between concepts that aren’t typically linked—all qualities that likewise demonstrate your preparedness for UChicago’s unique academic environment.

Harris Will Propose $25,000 In Down Payment Aid For First-Time Homebuyers As Part Of Economic Agenda

Today’s nyt mini crossword clues and answers for friday, august 16, thursday, august 15. russia’s war on ukraine: news and information from ukraine.

How to Answer it: While it may be easy to get distracted by the open-ended nature of the prompt, remember that both the substance and structure of your response should give some insight into your personality, perspective, and characteristics. With this in mind, begin by considering the emotions, experiences, or ideas that most resonate with you. Then, use your imagination to consider how a specific color could represent that feeling or concept. Remember that the prompt is ultimately an opportunity to showcase your creativity and original way of looking at the world, so your explanation does not need to be unnecessarily deep or complex—if you have a playful personality, convey your playfulness in your response; if you are known for your sarcasm, consider how you can weave in your biting wit; if you are an amateur poet, consider how you might take inspiration from poetry as you write, or offer a response in the form of a poem.

The goal is to take a familiar concept and turn it into something new and meaningful through a creative lens. Use this essay to showcase your ability to think inventively and to draw surprising connections between language and life.

Harvard University

Prompt: Top 3 things your roommates might like to know about you.

What Makes it Unique: This prompt is unique in both form and substance—first, you only have 150 words to write about all 3 things. Consider using a form other than a traditional essay or short answer response, such as a bullet list or short letter. Additionally, note that the things your roommate might like to learn about you do not necessarily overlap with the things you would traditionally share with an admissions committee. The aim of the prompt is to get to know your quirks and foibles—who are you as a person and a friend? What distinguishes you outside of academics and accolades?

How to Answer it: First and foremost, feel free to get creative with your response to this prompt. While you are producing a supplemental essay and thus a professional piece of writing, the prompt invites you to share more personal qualities, and you should aim to demonstrate your unique characteristics in your own voice. Consider things such as: How would your friends describe you? What funny stories do your parents and siblings share that encapsulate your personality? Or, consider what someone might want to know about living with you: do you snore? Do you have a collection of vintage posters? Are you particularly fastidious? While these may seem like trivial things to mention, the true creativity is in how you connect these qualities to deeper truths about yourself—perhaps your sleepwalking is consistent with your reputation for being the first to raise your hand in class or speak up about a cause you’re passionate about. Perhaps your living conditions are a metaphor for how your brain works—though it looks like a mess to everyone else, you have a place for everything and know exactly where to find it. Whatever qualities you choose, embrace the opportunity to think outside of the box and showcase something that admissions officers won’t learn about anywhere else on your application.

University of Pennsylvania

Prompt: Write a short thank-you note to someone you have not yet thanked and would like to acknowledge.

What Makes it Unique: Breaking from the traditional essay format, this supplement invites you to write directly to a third party in the form of a 150-200 word long letter. The challenge in answering this distinct prompt is to remember that your letter should say as much about you, your unique qualities and what you value as it does about the recipient—all while not seeming overly boastful or contrived.

How to Answer it: As you select a recipient, consider the relationships that have been most formative in your high school experience—writing to someone who has played a large part in your story will allow the admissions committee some insight into your development and the meaningful relationships that guided you on your journey. Once you’ve identified the person, craft a thank-you note that is specific and heartfelt—unlike other essays, this prompt invites you to be sentimental and emotional, as long as doing so would authentically convey your feelings of gratitude. Describe the impact they’ve had on you, what you’ve learned from them, and how their influence has shaped your path. For example, if you’re thanking a teacher, don’t just say they helped you become a better student—explain how their encouragement gave you the confidence to pursue your passions. Keep the tone sincere and personal, avoid clichés and focus on the unique role this person has played in your life.

University of Notre Dame

Prompt: What compliment are you most proud of receiving, and why does it mean so much to you?

What Makes it Unique: This prompt is unique in that it invites students to share something about themselves by reflecting on someone else’s words in 50-100 words.

How to Answer it: The key to answering this prompt is to avoid focusing too much on the complement itself and instead focus on your response to receiving it and why it was so important to you. Note that this prompt is not an opportunity to brag about your achievements, but instead to showcase what truly matters to you. Select a compliment that truly speaks to who you are and what you value. It could be related to your character, work ethic, kindness, creativity, or any other quality that you hold in high regard. The compliment doesn’t have to be grand or come from someone with authority—it could be something small but significant that left a lasting impression on you, or it could have particular meaning for you because it came from someone you didn’t expect it to come from. Be brief in setting the stage and explaining the context of the compliment—what is most important is your reflection on its significance and how it shaped your understanding of yourself.

Stanford University

Prompt: List five things that are important to you.

What Makes it Unique: This prompt’s simplicity is what makes it so challenging. Stanford asks for a list, not an essay, which means you have very limited space (50 words) to convey something meaningful about yourself. Additionally, the prompt does not specify what these “things” must be—they could be a physical item, an idea, a concept, or even a pastime. Whatever you choose, these five items should add depth to your identity, values, and priorities.

How to Answer it: Start by brainstorming what matters most to you—these could be values, activities, people, places, or even abstract concepts. The key is to choose items or concepts that, when considered together, provide a comprehensive snapshot of who you are. For example, you might select something tangible and specific such as “an antique telescope gifted by my grandfather” alongside something conceptual such as “the willingness to admit when you’re wrong.” The beauty of this prompt is that it doesn’t require complex sentences or elaborate explanations—just a clear and honest reflection of what you hold dear. Be thoughtful in your selections, and use this prompt to showcase your creativity and core values.

While the supplemental essays should convey something meaningful about you, your values, and your unique qualifications for the university to which you are applying, the best essays are those that are playful, original, and unexpected. By starting early and taking the time to draft and revise their ideas, students can showcase their authentic personalities and distinguish themselves from other applicants through their supplemental essays.

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Britain’s Violent Riots: What We Know

Officials had braced for more unrest on Wednesday, but the night’s anti-immigration protests were smaller, with counterprotesters dominating the streets instead.

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By Lynsey Chutel

After days of violent rioting set off by disinformation around a deadly stabbing rampage, the authorities in Britain had been bracing for more unrest on Wednesday. But by nightfall, large-scale anti-immigration demonstrations had not materialized, and only a few arrests had been made nationwide.

Instead, streets in cities across the country were filled with thousands of antiracism protesters, including in Liverpool, where by late evening, the counterdemonstration had taken on an almost celebratory tone.

Over the weekend, the anti-immigration protests, organized by far-right groups, had devolved into violence in more than a dozen towns and cities. And with messages on social media calling for wider protests and counterprotests on Wednesday, the British authorities were on high alert.

With tensions running high, Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s cabinet held emergency meetings to discuss what has become the first crisis of his recently elected government. Some 6,000 specialist public-order police officers were mobilized nationwide to respond to any disorder, and the authorities in several cities and towns stepped up patrols.

Wednesday was not trouble-free, however.

In Bristol, the police said there was one arrest after a brick was thrown at a police vehicle and a bottle was thrown. In the southern city of Portsmouth, police officers dispersed a small group of anti-immigration protesters who had blocked a roadway. And in Belfast, Northern Ireland, where there have been at least four nights of unrest, disorder continued, and the police service said it would bring in additional officers.

But overall, many expressed relief that the fears of wide-scale violence had not been realized.

Here’s what we know about the turmoil in Britain.

Where arrests have been reported

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