Although the concept of person-centered services has gained much popularity, there are significant discrepancies in the extent to which service agencies are actually implementing it. Eight organizations, each of which was successfully providing person centered services to at least some individuals, were examined. Some agencies were implementing…

In this article, I use data collected from research conducted in the summer of 2001 at the Grass Roots Arts and Community Effort (GRACE) in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. I present case studies of artists with developmental disabilities, who along with other isolated groups, are considered to be Outsider Artists. I begin the article by defining…

This paper gives an overview of the situation of home education in Germany. The first results from a predominantly qualitative research project are presented. This combines participant observation, content analysis and qualitative interviews for a thorough sociological analysis of the German home education movement. Compulsory school attendance…

This paper reviews New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's education reform agenda, "Children first", in the light of organizational theory. I argue that this reform agenda reflects both coercive and mimetic isomorphism, as Bloomberg uses mayoral control to apply business concepts and practices to New York City's public school system.…

This study addresses ways Khmer refugee elders utilize traditional herbal medicine with Western biomedicine in the treatment and prevention of illnesses. Methods include semi-structured and informal interviews with elders and family members, semi-structured interviews with local health care providers and Khmer physicians, and participant…

This paper discusses insights arising from a recent doctoral study in a New Zealand early childhood setting. I was interested in how young children learn to be part of the group and drawing on a socio-cultural framework carried out a qualitative case study to investigate the enculturation of young children into childcare settings. The particular…

This study examines the engagement of local teachers and parents in a low-income urban elementary school. Based on participant observation and interviews with 10 teachers who have residential histories in their school's neighborhood, this phenomenological study examines the ways in which the presence of teachers in the neighborhood and their…

This study involves "GrassRoots", a web-based program, designed to motivate schools to learn how to use an internet access point in the service of student growth. As consultant to the project, the author describes his task of participant recruiter, facilitator and data collector. Primarily, he examines what capacities or abilities the…

This study illuminates the meaning making world of 5th, 6th, and 7th grade African American boys in a community based after-school program. Employing participant observation, questionnaire and interviews, the work captures the manifestations of their definitions of gender and racial constructions, including maleness, masculinity, "Blackness," as…

While some studies have examined second language (L2) learning in young children who have at least one peer who speaks the same first language (L1) in the same preschool classroom (Clarke, 1999; Damhuis, 1993; Fraser & Wakefield, 1986), little research has been done concerning a young child learning an L2 through play in a natural setting in…

Writing fellow or writing associate (WA) programs trace their heritage to a single point of origin: the model developed at Brown University in the early 1980s by Tori Haring-Smith (Soven, 1993, 2001). Since then, the Brown model has spread to hundreds of schools. WA programs are so adaptable because they consist of many discrete elements, each of…

This guide provides an introduction to the use of microcomputers with qualitative data. It is deliberately non-specific and rudimentary in order to be of maximum benefit to the widest possible audience of beginning microcomputer users who wish to analyze their data using software that is not specifically designed for qualitative data analysis. The…

This case study investigated the manner in which junior kindergarten children learn to adapt to the role of student. Participant observation in a junior kindergarten class during the first 3 weeks of school was used to probe 22 children's perceptions of their first experiences as students. Particular attention was given to the way in which…

Examines the reciprocal relation of community organization and family patterns by participant observation techniques in two isolated fishing communities, similar in ecology and cultural background. Even though work organization in both is small scale, substantial differences in patterns of family life are found. (JAC)

Based upon principles of inquiry, collaboration, and action research, the Quest project supports and investigates ongoing school improvement efforts in a four-state region (Kentucky, West Virginia, Tennessee, and Virginia). Since 1996, Quest activities have included biannual conferences and summer symposia for school improvement teams, a Scholars…