Jessica Nina Lester, Associate Professor of Inquiry Methodology, and Chad R. Lochmiller, Assistant Professor of K-12 Leadership and Policy, along with their co-editor Rachael Gabriel, an Associate Professor of Reading Education at the University of Connecticut, received the 2018 Outstanding Qualitative Research Book Award from the Qualitative Research-Special Interest Group of the American Educational Research Association. This award recognizes writing that makes significant contributions to methodology in the area of qualitative educational research.

Lester noted, “My co-editors and I are very honored by this recognition, and grateful to be recognized by colleagues working at the intersection of education and qualitative research.”

Their book, Discursive perspectives on education policy and implementation (2017), brings together a rich set of methodological discussions and substantive applications of discourse analysis to education policy research. The chapters were written by key scholars of qualitative research methodology and education policy.

“The volume represents a new approach to thinking about the study of education policy and its implementation within K-12 schools,” says Lochmiller, “In particular, it strengthens our understanding of how policy actors think about, interact with, and ultimately modify policy at a practical level.”

Lester added, “We saw this volume as an opportunity to add our own imprint to discussions that were occurring in other policy contexts, most notably the United Kingdom.”

Lester and Lochmiller were recognized for this award during the 2018 annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association in New York, NY.