Reflects on ethical issues that are central to the author’s work as an educational researcher. Argues that research ought to be practiced as a form of service that respects teachers and students and enables researchers to grow through a process of reflection.

Examines four first-graders’ messages to family members in their “family message journals,” as students were learning to “do science.” Finds that they consistently composed texts in which they appropriated the linguistic conventions of science and that they seemed able to use these conventions flexibly, recontextualizing the genres to fit the task of a written dialogue with their families.

This study analyzes two literature discussion groups in a sixth-grade classroom. The analyses investigate the purpose for discussion as constructed by the members of each group and the kind of discussions that took place. The students were placed in these groups on the basis of reading ability. Collected over the course of a school year, data include audiotapes and transcripts of group meetings, field notes describing observations of meetings and other classroom interactions, and interviews with students and the teacher. Although the teacher wanted both groups to engage in informal discussion, only the group composed of more able readers constructed a conversation in which students participated eagerly and valued each others’ contributions. In contrast, the group composed of less able readers constructed a more teacher-dominated activity in which students seemed reluctant to participate voluntarily, display their knowledge, or construct meaning collaboratively. This study suggests several possible reasons why the less able readers did not respond to the teacher’s invitation to participate in informal discussions of literature