Brings together viewpoints on the qualitative and quantitative research paradigms with regard to educational research in general and to literacy research in particular. Elucidates some of the persistent disputes in the research community. Discusses research traditions in literacy research. Considers the contexts in which new paradigms arise.…

Policy analysis in higher education is distinct from but is informed by and can contribute to both institutional research and institutional planning. Policy analysis extends beyond data analysis, using many qualitative research methods and a degree of intuition, and focuses on specific issues, not systems as does planning. (MSE)

Autobiography is the imaginative construction of one's life story and the creative expression of lifelong transformative learning. Its use in studying adult transformation raises political and ethical questions and concerns about qualitative methods; it demonstrates the usefulness of conversation as a research process. (SK)

Discusses N. L. Gage's 1989 American Educational Research Association meeting address concerning the future of educational research and paradigm disputes. Reviews of research paradigms and qualitative versus quantitative controversies do not suggest that paradigm confrontation will soon end. Progress occurs in social science research methodology…

In a study of the relationship between moral reasoning and teenage drug use, problems arose in an attempt to reduce qualitative data to a quantitative format: (1) making analytic sense of singular and universal responses; (2) the mistaken logical inference that each pattern of judgment should have behavioral indicators; and (3) construction and…

Agrees with many of the points expressed in Herbert Zimiles's criticism of quantitative research in this issue, but argues that the shortcomings identified by Zimiles are present in many qualitative studies as well. Both quantitative and qualitative research need to follow high standards of research design and execution. (MDM)

This article uses a parable to compare qualitative (interpretive) and quantitative (experimental) methods in child language research. Two hypothetical young researchers both investigate question-asking behavior of children with autism. Five different possible endings to the parable illustrate various relationships among research approaches and…

This reaction to Duchan (EC 607 918) warns against a strict dogmatic adherence to either a qualitative or quantitative research approach and argues that far more important than methodology per se are choice of research question and appropriateness of the methodology to the problem under investigation. Examples in speech-language pathology are…

Discusses (in a special issue on the topic of criteria for the admissibility of evidence) the contributions and limitations of conversation analysis and postmodernism toward the enterprise of ethnographic research. Proposes criteria for qualitative data to be admissible as evidence for claims about social life and for a qualitative study to count…

Discusses (in a special issue on criteria for the admissibility of evidence in communication research) the use of personal experience in feminist scholarship. Discusses two tenets of feminist scholarship: women's perceptions, meanings, and experiences are taken seriously; and such information cannot be understood within theories developed without…

Effects of qualitative researchers' competing self-identities on decision making in the research process are addressed and illustrated with examples from the author's research with African American/Latino, low- to middle-income families of children with disabilities. (Author/DB)

Finds Bloom and Tinker's description and measurement of active, integrated, and situated children to be a credible scientifically rigorous paradigm for language acquisition research. Highlights their use of the naturalistic, observational method to understand the changing patterns of integration and use of multifaceted abilities in child language…

This article discusses the use of personal narrative in social science research and in helping individuals with learning difficulties renegotiate their sense of identity. One woman's story of her life is used to illustrate the corrosive effects of institutionalization in identity formation. (Contains references.) (DB)

Based on Habermas (1971), asserts that knowledge about teaching can be communicative and emancipatory as well as instrumental; these aspects of teaching therefore call for interpretive and critical evaluation. Offers a range of relevant strategies. (EV)

Two studies examined how children use talk to learn interaction patterns critical for the use of mental state terms. Qualitative analysis of mother-child talk revealed that criteria were presented in temporal, cause and effect sequences. Children who failed false belief tasks were less competent at recognizing and commenting on important aspects…