Interviews 16 school board chairs in North Carolina to determine their attitudes toward state education reform legislation. Discusses two themes emerging from the interviews: Downsizing the state bureaucracy translates into autonomy and accountability at the local level, but paradoxically boards now lack the organizational buffering previously…

Presents the results of a study that explored the management of subject-verb agreement in second -to seventh-grade children studying the French language. Examined whether agreement with imperfect tense may have a lesser cost than agreement with the present. Finds that imperfect tense is acquired more rapidly than present tense. (CMK)

Presents the results of a study that trained ten and eleven year old children to improve their argumentative abilities. Explores whether didactic sequence with oral exercises and co-operative oral debate affected the children. Explains that the children were required to produce three argumentative texts before and after each training phase. (CMK)

Discusses a variety of topics and their implications for library and information science professionals and their education. Highlights include the nature of science; contingency theories; the assumptions of sociology; the approach of symbolic interaction; recent scholarship on organizations; and the advantages of qualitative research methods.…

Two evaluation studies using qualitative methods are described to illustrate the appropriateness of such methods for certain research questions. Ways to enhance reliability and validity are also discussed in the descriptions of the evaluations of 16 emergency medical services and 13 local health departments. (SLD)

Delineates factors influencing preservice secondary teachers' resistance to content area reading. Discusses and highlights excerpts from multiple data sources to illustrate factors influencing resistance, including constraints found in the teaching workplace and perceived models or the teacher's role in the classroom. (RS)

This article defines qualitative research, provides an illustration of its application, and suggests references that further explain and discuss this research technique. In addition, the strengths and limitations of qualitative research are appraised, particularly as they are illuminated by comparisons with the conventional model of inquiry in…

This article provides a brief overview of critical qualitative research. This type of research seeks to empower those being researched and declares that all research is value-based, not value-free. A brief description of the limited amount of critical research conducted in sport and physical education is given. (IAH)

The use of qualitative evaluation methods is explored as a means of overcoming constraints and complexities of evaluation of development programs. A case study demonstrating the application of qualitative analysis to monitoring and evaluation of the Basic Minimum Needs program in Thailand is presented. (SLD)

Traces the development of studies of writing related to teaching and learning that have appeared in "Research in the Teaching of English" (RTE) between 1966 and 1986. Finds that RTE has served to both maintain the dominant paradigm and act as a forum for calls to pursue other research approaches. (JAD)

Describes study that was conducted to identify some of the key issues associated with computer-mediated communication (CMC) socialization for a group of new users enrolled in an inservice leadership course at the University of Ottawa for experienced school administrators. Contextual factors influencing participants' attitudes toward CMC are also…

Reports on interviews with community leaders associated with four rural Ohio high schools. Finds that these schools are the nuclei of their communities, are highly valued, and provide a community facility for recreational and cultural activities and for adult meetings. (SV)

Employs a pragmatic philosophical perspective to argue that there is no incompatibility at either the level of practice or that of epistemology between qualitative and quantitative methods of educational research. (FMW)

This study examined journals in the field of library and information science to determine the institutional affiliation of authors and their use of descriptive versus inferential statistics. It was found that academic librarians published more research but relied on descriptive statistics, whereas faculty published less, but used inferential…

An ethnographic study of an urban comprehensive high school shows that teachers rarely used Channel One as a focus of instruction in their classrooms. Students watched Channel One primarily during an 18-minute homeroom period--a concession to parents, teachers, and administrators reluctant to sacrifice instructional time to show the program. Two…