Mirroring the roundtable discussions conducted at the 2020 Association for Middle Level Education (AMLE) conference, this volume highlights the dialogic knowledge-building process critical to advancing middle level teaching and research.

Launching the new AMLE Innovations in Middle Level Education Research series, this collection captures the synergetic dialogue that occurs during professional meetings by collating and centering five recent studies on topics such as mathematics achievement, personalized and project-based learning, and teacher collaboration. A companion essay and critical external response accompanies each study, serving to re-situate original research and reconsider findings in view of professional insights and external critique gained through discussion at AMLE 2020. Ultimately, these response essays foreground potential avenues for future research and alternative thinking, laying the groundwork for implementation of critical discussion in the classroom environment.

This text will benefit researchers, doctoral students, and academics in the fields of middle level education, educational research, and specifically research methods in education. Those interested in teaching and learning, and adolescent development more broadly, will also benefit from this volume.