Used content analysis of elderly nursing home residents' statements to describe their perceptions of communication rules and beliefs that regulate their talking. Collected data by using role-play interview technique. Perceived communication rules and self-regulatory beliefs identified by residents were found to inhibit them from talking with one…

Explores the complementary contributions to experiential education research that are offered by an interpretive approach using qualitative methods and a positivist approach using quantitative methods. Discusses the utility of the interpretive approach in examining the multiple realities that influence human behavior. (SV)

This study used qualitative methods to examine the paradigm choices of 22 legal scholars at three institutions. These faculty members were working in either conventional formalist and realist paradigms or in alternative critical and interpretive paradigms. Paradigm choice appeared to result from personal experiences and structural and conceptual…

States that scholars and practitioners are defining public relations as relationship management. Identifies, through qualitative research and verifies through quantitative research, relationship dimensions upon which good organization-public relationships are initiated, developed, and maintained. Surveys 384 telephone subscribers in territories…

Introduces the symposium on qualitative research by depicting the context and politics of the field of educational studies in the last few decades. Finds agreement that the qualitative method is an apt way to capture latent and manifest activity in classrooms. (SK)

Although psychological research has strong qualitative roots, the current dominant paradigm eschews such methods. Concerns of qualitative researchers include the subjectivity of researchers and participants, the artistic potential of qualitative research, critical evaluation of qualitative interpretations, and theory building. (Author/SK)

Outlines topics for future debate based on articles in this issue: qualitative studies focused on the substance of education, multisite studies, clarification of the genre of research, the potential of interdisciplinary approaches, and the uses of technology in furthering the debate. (SK)

Reviews the need for and development of expanded school mental health (ESMH) programs, which provide a continuum of mental health promotion and intervention through school-community partnerships. Since ESMH is a relatively new, but increasingly prominent field, countless issues are being addressed in practice and research and in efforts to bridge…

This paper deals with the highly personal way an individual makes sense of the world in a way that avoids the pitfalls of the so-called private language. For Wittgenstein following a rule can never mean just following another rule, though we do follow rules blindly. His idea of the "form of life" elicits that "what we do" refers to what we have…

In the past few decades qualitative research has increasingly appeared in special education journals. However, much of this work falls within the parameters of producing useful technical information that can be applied to the contexts where children and adults with disabilities learn, work, and live. Experimental qualitative studies that rely on…

Models of curricula development in higher education pay scant attention to the role of self-interested actors in the construction of knowledge. Rather, it is assumed that curricula develop on the basis of fission within disciplines, fusion between fields, the exertion of pressure by the state or other stakeholders, or the development of knowledge…

In this qualitative research article, we present the stories of eight faculty members as they experience a change in teaching context from working in a traditional university environment to working together in a collaborative learning environment. We were interested in understanding whether a change in teaching context would affect them as…

The Interdisciplinary Qualitative Research Subcommittee (IQRS) of the Task for on Evidence-based Interventions in School Psychology assumed the responsibility of developing criteria for reviewing qualitative methods used in intervention research. The IQRS, composed primarily of psychologists and anthropologists, was confronted with the…

Scholars who are drawn to qualitative research methodologies represent a diverse group of disciplines and fields. They also represent themselves as researchers and the theoretical frameworks in which they work quite differently. Indeed, it was this diversity in representation that initially motivated us to propose a New Directions feature on…

The purpose of the present paper is to emphasise the importance of inferences in an empirical study and to demonstrate how the inferences depend on a wider context. For that purpose a metamodel of central inferences is proposed, where each inference is characterised according to three dimensions: relevance, legitimacy, and validity. The relevance…