The purpose of this article is to move readers toward a deeper understanding of and widened respect for autoethnography's capacity as an empirical endeavor. An argument is presented in favor of autoethnography as empirical by translating information from its epistemological and methodological history across the AERA standards for reporting…

Discusses N. L. Gage's 1989 American Educational Research Association meeting address concerning the future of educational research and paradigm disputes. Reviews of research paradigms and qualitative versus quantitative controversies do not suggest that paradigm confrontation will soon end. Progress occurs in social science research methodology…

A major source of confusion in educational research comes when qualitative research is regarded as if it were one approach. Qualitative research has many varieties that can be identified and understood by using the notion of research traditions. Six approaches from the social and behavioral sciences are compared. (VM)

Reviews qualitative (historical and ethnographic) studies of education in Japan that advance a general understanding of educational theory and practice. Japan, which is neither an educational paradise nor an examination hell, is the source of much data of value to educational research in the United States. (SLD)

Discusses qualitative research and its application to educational evaluation. Approaches discussed include the following: (1) ethnography; (2) naturalistic inquiry; (3) generic pragmatic (sociological) inquiry; (4) connoisseurship/criticism; (5) metaphors; and (6) phenomenography. (FMW)

The main differences between pragmatism and scientific realism seem to focus on the certainty of knowledge. Pragmatists contend that one can never be entirely certain of one's beliefs, whereas scientific realists argue that progress has been, and can be, made in explaining things about the world. (SLD)

Argues that the clinical trial paradigm is the wrong model for educational research. Interpretive case study research suggests that the best thing policymakers can do for educational improvement is to give local educators and school communities more freedom and funding to work out their own ways to improve practice. (SLD)

Profiles a few of the affinities between pragmatists and scientific realists, and indicates a few dramatic differences dividing these schools of thought. Pragmatic research is driven by anticipated consequences. Scientific realists hope to find the truth about what the world is really like. (SLD)

Surveys forms of narrative inquiry in educational studies. Outlines certain criteria, methods, and writing forms. Describes them in terms of beginning the story, living the story, and selecting stories to construct and reconstruct narrative plots. Describes two-part research agenda for curriculum and studies flowing from stories of experience and…