More than 130 service-learning courses have been developed and taught at the University of Utah, a major Research I university, over the last ten years. A series of focus groups were conducted to identify salient factors related to faculty and administrators' perspectives of the advantages and challenges associated with service-learning. The study…

This study explores reverse discrimination as a cultural phenomenon that should be studied by anthropologists, and to which anthropology has inadvertently contributed. Discrimination by minority group members is taught and encouraged under the guise of ethnic pride and promotion of traditional beliefs. Ethnocentrism may be a cultural defense…

Qualitative research methods were used to investigate the sources and methods of dealing with stress in eight families with adopted children who have severe developmental or multiple disabilities. The families, who had each adopted from two to 30 children, included "birth children" and, in some cases, foster children as well. The research methods…

A team approach to the use of qualitative methods in a study of high quality out-of-class experiences for undergraduate students at 14 institutions of higher education is described. Four research questions examined: the physical and organizational features characterizing the institutions; the nature of institutional policies related to…

Issues in vocational development for disabled youth in Honduras, Central America, were the focus of an intensive short-term qualitative research effort. Among the research objectives were identifying promising employment opportunities and determining areas where modest investments of technical assistance or other resources would have maximum…

Girls tend, far less than boys, to opt for science or technical subjects in upper secondary school and higher education. A plan to study females' experiences, ideas, and attitudes to science and technology is reviewed in this report. The study's intent is to follow two groups of Swedish students from the beginning of grade 7 to their choice of…

For decades, there has been considerable interest in understanding how attitudes toward other nations and cultures are formed and how people differ in their knowledge and attitudes toward global issues. However, the available research on the topic is sparse and disconnected. This paper suggests a model for looking at the research and presents…

The intricate quilt pattern of child language development can be pieced together from the numerous swatches of each child's language fabric which have been gathered by watching, looking, and listening when young children write. The necessity of watching, looking, and listening is demonstrated by the example of a preschooler's verbal protocol which…

The Apple Classroom of Tomorrow (ACOT) project is an attempt to alter the instructional premises of a selected group of seven experimental classrooms in the United States by saturating them with computer technology. A recent proposal submitted to Apple Computer described STAR (Sensible Technology Assessment/Research), which includes both…

A great deal of work has been accomplished over the past several years on children's conceptualizations of various scientific phenomena. A problem, however, is determining whether one's collection techniques provide a complete picture. In this study three techniques (the repertory grid, draw and describe, and the interview about events) were used…

The paper outlines the "sociology of acceptance" as a theoretical framework for understanding relationships between people with mental retardation and typical people. Sociocultural perspectives on deviance are reviewed and their contribution to the study of mental retardation is considered. The paper next examines the nature of accepting…

An expanded program review process that includes qualitative, ethnographic, retrospective, and subjective data is described. At the University of Kansas, qualitative indicators were developed and methods were designed to implement them. Reviews were moved from a process of reacting to quantitative self-studies to a procedure that involved:…

An endless debate in social science research focuses on whether or not there is a philosophical basis for justifying the application of scientific methods to social inquiry. A review of the philosophies of various scholars in the field indicates that there is no single procedure for arriving at a valid statement in a scientific inquiry. Natural…

Numerous studies in general education have concluded that parental involvement improves student achievement. Research in music education indicates that parental involvement is beneficial to progress on a musical instrument. However, few music teachers are known to actively encourage it. This paper reports on a detailed qualitative survey that…

A survey was conducted using qualitative means to assess school counseling programs in Montana. Schools that were demonstration schools in a federal initiative, Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) were compared to non-GEAR UP schools. Several differences between GEAR UP and non-GEAR UP schools are noted and…