Qualitative research (QR) has gained visibility and acceptance in the field of special education due to early efforts to identify quality indicators focused on technical and methodological aspects of QR. Whereas these indicators focused on credibility and trustworthiness of data, this article articulates additional QR quality indicators to enhance…

Research on disability issues in countries of the South is primarily dominated by a focus on generating large scale quantitative data sets. This paper discusses the many challenges, opportunities and dilemmas faced in designing and undertaking a qualitative research study in one district in India. The Disability, Education and Poverty Project…

This commentary on the previous article on an interpretive research approach discusses the journey of a researcher from radical behaviorism, to interpretive social science, to an emerging viewpoint in which art more than science is used as a way of seeing issues related to disability, education, and change. (Contains 10 references.) (CR)

Comments on researchers' efforts to develop and refine a methodology to use in a study that investigated patterns in general education teachers' integration practices (EC 618 917). The need to combine qualitative and quantitative methods in more creative ways to investigate actual practice in special education is discussed. (CR)

This article discusses how interpretive research can challenge the special education field to think differently about what is already known and to factor in different ways of knowing and different meanings. Three dimensions of interpretive research are explored: "truth" value and accuracy, context and relations, and utility and relevance.…

Four researchers argue the merits of qualitative methodology and its particular relevance to those in special education who seek to move beyond a deficit perspective. Unconstrained by defined variables and decontextualized settings, qualitative methods allowed the researchers to extend the scope of their studies beyond originally stated research…

Guidelines for the implementation of qualitative methods in special education research are offered, addressing rigor, sample selection, data collection, and data management/analysis. Five possible pitfalls are identified, including the quantitative-qualitative methods debate, premature data collection, the tendency to use a linear procedural…

This commentary on a previous article that demonstrates three ways of analyzing qualitative interview data (content, cultural models, and narrative analyses), discusses the need for greater articulation of the complexities of interpretation and a greater emphasis on verification procedures in early intervention qualitative research. (CR)

The revolution in hard sciences is explored, from the Cartesian-Newtonian worldview to the Heisenbergian universe, and consideration is given to whether the conventional, Cartesian model is a serviceable one for research in the social/applied sciences. Five axioms comprising the existing paradigm of logical positivism are outlined (reality,…