RESEARCH

My education research examines the social dynamics that exist among and between teachers, school administrators, district central office personnel, and the organizations all of them interact with outside the school system. Specifically, I am interested in the ways that technology can help or hinder the opportunity gap between diverse, urban student populations, and their suburban counterparts.  My previous work has involved alternative forms of school governance, with a specific focus on models that encourage active democratic participation from school employees and the students with whom they interact. I have an additional research interest in qualitative methodology, specifically the ways that innovative ethnographic methods can be employed in online spaces and in affinity communities like large musical ensembles.

My current research addresses a pressing concern in education: the ways that decisions being made by organizational actors outside the public education system influence how students, teachers, and administrators experience what they call "school."  My dissertation explores the ways that education services firms are able to impact -- and are impacted by -- changes in the policy landscape.

I primarily engage in qualitative inquiry, with expertise in extended case study methods, document analysis, phenomenology, and ethnography; I use NVivo for qualitative analysis.  I am also proficient in a variety of quantitative methods, including econometrics and causal methods, multiple regression, and stochastic modelling; I have experience working with both STATA and R.

Selected Publications

  • LaFave, A. L. & Mainz, E. A. (Forthcoming, 2018). Engaging with the syuzhet: A new methodological approach to multimodal timelines in digital ethnography. Ethnography.
  • Burch, P., LaFave, A. L., & Good, A.  (In press, expected 2015).  Responding to the Common Core: What’s out there and where can I find it?  In J. Supovitz (Ed.), Rising to the Challenge of Standards Implementation in the New America.  Washington, D. C.: Rowman & Littlefield.
  • Hentschke, G. C. & LaFave, A. L.  (2014).  Apprenticeship and job training programs.  In Brewer, D. & Picus, L. (eds.), Encyclopedia of Education Economics and Finance.  Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.     
  • Hentschke, G. C. & LaFave, A. L.  (2014).  The privatization and marketization of education.  In Brewer, D. & Picus, L. (eds.), Encyclopedia of Education Economics and Finance.  Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.