"Thick descriptions" are descriptions that are layered enough to draw conclusions and uncover the intentions of a given act, event, or process. In a video environment, thick descriptions are images, gestures, or sequences that convey meaning. Neither the quantity nor the resolution of the images makes the descriptions thick. Thickness is…

The struggle in the composition community regarding the place of personal narrative in academic writing became particularly acute for a class of undergraduate Critical Writing students undertaking ethnographic work. By mid-semester, students had read and produced a series of texts about culture and found themselves reading and writing about…

Different types of interviews serve different purposes; however, they all share a common goal of collecting data in different situations. The data may be factual in generating quantitative input for a research project, attitudinal in gauging public acceptance of a proposed educational policy, or used in gaining a better understanding of a certain…

An ethnographic study examined the practice of rituals as the pervasive form of communication at St. Mary's (a pseudonym) Catholic elementary school. Four specific rituals illustrate this communication process: morning assembly, "Pass the Pen,""Sparkles," and "Yes please/No thank-you." Morning assembly begins each…

This articles explores authoritive problems in interpreting art education in research, namely authorization and authorship. Authorization rites and rights are now under institutional surveillance. A researcher should proceed with ethical fairness. The process of authorship is one of the negotiation of conflicting meanings, and at times subject to…

An ethnographic study of a pre-school classroom explored an unconventional triangulated framework using literary theory, cultural and critical theory for communication inquiry into the narrative experiences of multicultural children. Field observations were conducted during 1991 in a pre-kindergarten class in a western United States university…

This paper first addresses assumptions about teaching and scholarly research, drawing from feminist theory in communication and women's studies. Second, the paper discusses one scholar's commitments as ethnographer and teacher to students, research participants, colleagues and others, including ways to enact those commitments in the classroom and…

As part of a major effort towards the documentation of teachers' roles, in a project (Toledo Support Teachers Program) aimed towards their restructuring, one female science teacher was observed using ethnographic techniques while performing her daily work as a teacher, department head, support teacher during the winter and spring of 1989. The…

Ethnographers in composition must consider their work as a set of discursive practices which are materially affected by the institutional and disciplinary practices of the ethnographer. The value of such ethnographic research for a writing program is that it provides a useful critique of disciplinary practices in English, rather than a critique of…

The linkage between policy research and policy formation can be strengthened through the use of qualitative methods. Currently, the linkage between policy research and policy decision making is tenuous; there are differences in philosophy, function, self-definition, and criteria by which success is measured. Although research cannot dictate the…

This field guide was used as a basis for documenting classroom events at five community school sites in Papua New Guinea, as part of the Indigenous Mathematics Project in its ongoing research into primary mathematics learning. Methodology for evaluating the appropriateness of curriculum form and content is described and specific sections focus on…

This guide provides an introduction to the use of microcomputers with qualitative data. It is deliberately non-specific and rudimentary in order to be of maximum benefit to the widest possible audience of beginning microcomputer users who wish to analyze their data using software that is not specifically designed for qualitative data analysis. The…

For one of a series of related assignments, students were to ride a Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) bus or commuter train through the heart of Chicago, to experience the contrasts among the people there, and to write about what was learned. The students were to take an analytical view: What does this collection of images tell the student about the…

The purpose of this study is to illustrate how the combined use of qualitative and quantitative methods were necessary in obtaining within this society a clearer understanding of incest. The paper opens with a report of studies carried out on natural father and stepfather incestuous families, and this opens up the issue of the appropriateness of…

In a follow-up of 407 mentally retarded children first studied in 1959, the study examined contributing influences of parental attitude and child-rearing practices as well as the larger society's socializing practices. Original demographic and attitudinal data were used to predict the functional adjustment of 70 members of the original cohort.…