Hi Katie,
Thanks for the reply. There seems to be quite some growing interest from education as well. Notably from Major & Savin-Baden. Their recent book is quite interresting:
Major, D.H. Savin-Baden, M. (2010). An introduction to qualitative research synthesis: Managing the information explosion in social science research. London: Routledge.
I find discussions on research method/methodology from nursing sciences especially very dynamic and informative. I have loads of relevant methodology articles re metasynthesis/metastudy/meta-ethnography should anyone be interest. Mostly challenging, often contradictory!
I do think that psychology’s absence from metasynthesis may have to do with practical concerns (funding opportunities) lack of research interest (still favouring quantitative research) or perhaps researchers are just “slow to warm up” (developmentally). I am investigating the issue for my PhD and am sure to post my ideas.