This paper addresses the specific concerns of gaining entry into formal and complex organizational settings, specifically businesses, to conduct field research. Accounts of other researchers' experiences and the authors' own field data are analyzed and viewed within an open systems organizational framework. Through the use of metaphors relating to…

This guide provides evaluators interested in new methods with a framework for determining the feasibility, utility, and effectiveness of the methods in field settings. To accomplish this intent, the body of this guide contains discussions of five checklists. Three of the checklists are to be used before a trial to determine the feasibility of one…

Since all Agency for International Development (AID) projects require an evaluation component, AID's emphasis on assistance to agriculture and rural development projects ensures a continuing need for skilled and expert personnel to evaluate those projects. Intended for potential AID project evaluators, this guide uses experience gained from field…

This document describes approaches in conducting naturalistic studies in two different countries with contrasting educational settings. Naturalistic research methodology is described by one of the writers as "an explicit undertaking to lay aside our ideas and concern ourselves with finding the subjects' perspectives in their non-theoretical…

Female researchers conducting field research in educational politics encounter special problems of access, entry, reciprocity, and ethics. Accordingly, this study focuses first on field research methods in policy settings as a general topic, then on problems specific to women in this area. A researcher must be aware of informal coalitions or…

This guide is intended to give practical advice that prepares graduate student researchers for the realities and challenges of living and working abroad, with a particular focus on that area of research experience that is between participation and observation. Drawing on the experiences of 150 scholars, funded over a 6-year period by the MacArthur…

Ethnographic research (1) observes human behavior in its natural setting over a substantial period of time, (2) claims that classes of events are better understood through intensive examination of carefully selected particular cases, (3) incorporates as many of the complexities and variables into a setting as possible, and (4) is usually comprised…

In this book, which applies the state of the art in qualitative research to special education, qualitative research is used as a generic term for investigative methodologies described variously as ethnographic, naturalistic, anthropological, field research, or participant-observer research. Chapter 1 introduces and defines qualitative research and…

In conducting research, the identified problem in the field will determine the research strategies chosen to address the problem. When a qualitative research strategy is deemed as the most appropriate strategy to get answers to research questions, the researcher should be aware of obstacles that can be encountered in the research process. If the…

Proposes that higher education scholars distinguish among professional subjects taught to undergraduates as they do among traditional disciplines. Other distinctions may be more meaningful than the research-based dimensions used in the popular Biglan classification. A framework for differentiating collegiate career fields is proposed, evidence…