Article defines qualitative research and describes the form that an article based on qualitative research might take. Encourages readers to submit articles based on qualitative research to the American Educational Research Journal. (RB)

The concept of structure is recast as an instantaneous correspondence between an infrastructure, a sociostructure, and a superstructure--manifestations of collective life juxtaposed through technological solutions, political exchanges, and social interpretations involving organizations. Ultimately, structuring is a dialectical unfolding of…

Three qualitative research methodologies (ethnography, microethnography, and ethology) are contrasted according to their disciplinary origins, methods for data collection and analysis, and use of audiovisual technology. Studies that exemplify the special education applications of these methodologies are summarized. (Author)

Presents case study demonstrating how qualitative techniques can be used to evaluate a high school counseling and guidance program. (Author)

Although education scholars have long valued contributions of the social sciences to theory and practice, educational researchers have contributed a significant legacy for organizational theory. By focusing the debate on culture and politics, the new paradigm shift in education interprets organizations as being rational, symbolic, and political.…

Provides an overview of this special issue. All papers emphasize the power invested in human service organizations, showing it is up to participants in group care situations to make them work effectively. (LHW)

Discusses three criteria by which to measure the importance of adult education research questions. These criteria are practical application, contribution to understanding, and universality. The author argues that the criteria must not be identified with a particular kind of research or "importance" comparisons between quantitative and…

This study examined the way qualitative data analysis software and virtual teaching methods can support the learning of qualitative research. Study methodology was based on phenomenology, and data were gathered in a pilot course on qualitative research methodology in which 22 adult part time graduate students participated. The course was built…

This book offers useful, prescriptive advice on how to enter different field settings for interviewing and observation. The chapters of part 1, "Stages of Access," are: (1) "Finding Informants"; (2) "Human Subjects and Permission To Contact Informants"; (3) "Making Initial Contact"; (4) "Developing a Rapport"; and (5) "Exiting: Ending the…

This book, designed for novice researchers, provides a step-by-step guide to the development of a research project. It emphasizes learning how to do qualitative work and provides specific examples from real studies. The chapters are: (1) "Deciding To Do a Qualitative Study"; (2) "Designing Qualitative Studies"; (3) "Collecting Qualitative Data";…

This paper highlights the relative strengths and weaknesses of the contemporary methods of research synthesis and proposes a multistage approach to research synthesis that draws on the strengths of each of these individual methods. In this approach, the decisions at every step of the synthesis process are guided by the nature of the data. The…

The paper examines the nature of qualitative empirical studies published in the AHRD proceedings from 1999-2003 and discusses findings on research purpose, research question(s), and inquiry literature cited. (Contains 4 tables.)

R. Zubir and M. Pope (1984) and K. Howe (1985, 1988) have argued against the "tyranny of methodological dogma" and that the division between quantitative psychometric and qualitative phenomenological and anthropological traditions is unnecessary. The postmodern self-consciousness of educational research has resulted in the realization that there…

A qualitative enquiry explored, with a range of family therapists and systemic practitioners, the influence they perceive to have been made on their personal and professional lives by the literary texts they have read. Noting that "literary" is broadly interpreted to include poetry, prose, drama/film, song lyrics, etc., the study's aims…

This paper discusses the ways in which photography was used for data generation in a 9-month qualitative study on a mixed-age elementary school classroom. Through a review of the research literature in anthropology, sociology, and education, and an analysis of the research data, the usefulness of photography for educational research with young…