Editorial: e-Research for education: Applied, methodological and critical perspectives

This special issue brings together a set of contributions that represent and explore the state of the art regarding the development and application of digital technologyenhanced research approaches in educational research—e-research for education. Over the recent years, digital technologies have enhanced various aspects of scholarly practices, such as data collection and analysis, research collaboration, and publishing. New technology-enhanced research approaches have been emerging in a number of educational research domains, such as learning analytics, educational data mining, digital ethnography and educational informatics. Although the potential of digital approaches has been generally acknowledged, many overarching conceptual and methodological questions remain unexplored and under-theorised. This special issue provides a landmark collection that synthesises some important empirical and methodological advances in this research field, including methodologically innovative case studies and critical analyses of overarching epistemological, methodological and practical issues that inevitably will shape future developments of this research field.