A year-long qualitative study constructed a "thick" (rich, literal) description and interpretation of the social organization, interactions, and attitudes displayed within one self-contained second-grade classroom during its scholastic language arts activities and instruction to explain how a literacy learning environment can be seen as…

This paper includes a qualitative study of the role of "inclusion specialists" in schools, a review of the history of special education, accounts of interviews with 17 special and 7 regular educators, accounts of day-long observations of four specialists, and the author's reflections. The literature review focuses on the relationship of…

Survey responses of seniors (N=63) at a large Eastern university on a questionnaire of their satisfaction with academic and student services were evaluated. Faculty interaction was most commonly reported as the best experience students had at the university, and often included mention of specific faculty and specific courses. The importance of…

A pilot study to investigate the use of concept mapping for assessment purposes was conducted during the spring of 1996. Thirteen teachers from a random sample of science teachers affiliated with the Iowa-Scope, Sequence, and Coordination Project and 12 other teachers affiliated with the project participated in the concept mapping study. Student…

Racism is on the rise at colleges and universities around the country. This study was developed from a racial incident that culminated in physical violence at a medium-sized eastern university. This study used a naturalistic, qualitative approach to further understand the perceptions and feelings of white respondents in relation to racism.…

This qualitative study examined the ways in which homeless children cope with their environment. Preliminary data were gathered by observing homeless children at a homeless shelter day care center in a medium-sized midwestern city. As many as 12 children, aged 2 to 6 years, were observed in the day care setting on three different weekday mornings.…

A qualitative study investigated the viewpoints and beliefs of five non-traditional secondary mathematics student teachers regarding using content literacy strategies. The five student teachers were military officers preparing for a second career as secondary mathematics teachers. Data included interviews, observations, and written materials from…

This paper offers concrete examples from recent policy research about how qualitative and quantitative methods can be combined to better address research questions. Using a conceptual framework developed by Rossman and Wilson (1985), later expanded by Greene, Caracelli, and Graham (1989), the paper discusses how the design and analysis phases of…

This qualitative study examined how college students majoring in Studio Art perceived their undergraduate educational experiences and the impact of this education on their post-college plans. Data were gathered through written questionnaires completed by 22 students, in-depth interviews with 6 students, and on-site participant observation.…

This paper addresses questions of validity, textual authority, and the rhetorical handling of the researcher-as-self by examining current thinking on poststructural approaches in the work of Patti Lather and Laurel Richardson. The first section introduces the idea of inquiry validity as an "incitement to discourse," a view which changes…

This book is based on research conducted in a bilingual, (Spanish and English) working-class neighborhood third-grade classroom. It is a qualitative, ethnographic study of the classroom as a system that uses exemplary teaching to show how whole language learning can be explained as a tension between personal invention and social convention. The…

Focusing on the emerging nature of teacher voice in educational change, this ethnographic study examined the process of teacher-initiated change through collaborative research in an elementary school. Four elementary school teachers, their principal, and a university professor were involved in the research. Qualitative data was collected through…

A study identified the behavior and attitude of three science education graduate students assigned to two different science education professors. These professors taught separate sections of the same science methods course at a university. The symbolic interactionist and functionalist positions were taken as a theoretical perspective. Data…

The increasing use of job training or retraining and employment programs in response to high rates of unemployment in France has spurred interest in program evaluation to see what results have been achieved. The contribution of traditional standardized evaluations and of emerging methodologies is being examined. Traditional evaluation methods…

This study evaluates and examines teaching strategies used by Project DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education), a program developed by the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles Unified School District. Through a planned curriculum, uniformed law enforcement officers present information to fifth- and sixth-grade students on substance…