Describes the first author's graduate work and dissertation which fell in a crack in time, that period where her institution moved from nearly an exclusive use of quantitative approaches to an awareness and acceptance of both qualitative and quantitative strategies. Discusses implications for graduate students and faculty. (RS)

Examples of qualitative investigations of traditionally hard-to-measure college and university characteristics using multiple investigators are rare, despite their potential for in-depth understanding and broad comparisons of institutional contexts. A team approach to qualitative multisite research was found useful and effective in a 9-researcher…

Investigates the writing experience of 40 eleventh graders and examines the social and pedagogical circumstances contributing to their limited concentration and motivation. Finds that emotion disrupts sustained and thoughtful attention to writing. Demonstrates the psychological toll of limited concentration, negative self-view, and limited…

Describes how an (industrial) organization's control system evolved in response to a managerial change from hierarchical, bureaucratic control to concertive control via self-management teams. The organization's members developed a system of value-based normative rules that controlled their actions more powerfully and completely than did the former…

Agrees with many of the points expressed in Herbert Zimiles's criticism of quantitative research in this issue, but argues that the shortcomings identified by Zimiles are present in many qualitative studies as well. Both quantitative and qualitative research need to follow high standards of research design and execution. (MDM)

This article uses a parable to compare qualitative (interpretive) and quantitative (experimental) methods in child language research. Two hypothetical young researchers both investigate question-asking behavior of children with autism. Five different possible endings to the parable illustrate various relationships among research approaches and…

This reaction to Duchan (EC 607 918) warns against a strict dogmatic adherence to either a qualitative or quantitative research approach and argues that far more important than methodology per se are choice of research question and appropriateness of the methodology to the problem under investigation. Examples in speech-language pathology are…

Discusses (in a special issue on the topic of criteria for the admissibility of evidence) the contributions and limitations of conversation analysis and postmodernism toward the enterprise of ethnographic research. Proposes criteria for qualitative data to be admissible as evidence for claims about social life and for a qualitative study to count…

Discusses (in a special issue on criteria for the admissibility of evidence in communication research) the use of personal experience in feminist scholarship. Discusses two tenets of feminist scholarship: women's perceptions, meanings, and experiences are taken seriously; and such information cannot be understood within theories developed without…

Examined differences in connectedness of instruction on equivalent algebraic expressions between an expert and two novice teachers by analyzing lesson plans, observations, and postlesson interviews. Only the expert teacher used both lesson and content connectedness to guide teaching. Differences in teachers' views and uses of connectedness are…

Illustrates how a qualitative approach was used to study the complex and poorly defined concept of information resources management. Explains the general approach to data collection, its advantages and limitations, and the process used to analyze the data. Presents results, along with lessons learned through using method. (Author/AEF)

Presents a qualitative study of the ways in which technology is characterized by educators in a Canadian school district preparing to implement technological problem solving within the framework of a mandatory elementary science program. Highlights include an epistemological basis for technology education, and curriculum development and…

Examines urban high-school teachers' professional-development experiences through the lenses of personal teaching efficacy and professional learning, highlighting interview responses of 20 teachers with highest and lowest scores. Degree of personal teaching efficacy influences how individual teachers experience professional development. Programs…

This qualitative study examined two classrooms that used a coteaching approach to provide services to students who were deaf, hard of hearing, and hearing. It used extensive observations and interviews with teachers, students, parents, and administrators. Results support coteaching's effectiveness as a service-delivery model. Seven themes about…

Identifies three theoretical and methodological tensions that shape the interest of researchers in innovative methods and influence their willingness to use the sorts of innovative methods described in this theme issue. Explores the use of qualitative research and the criteria by which it should be judged. (SLD)