As an alternative to traditional methodology in education research, an approach transcending the distinction between quantitative and qualitative perspectives is suggested. Emerging insights in qualitative research can be enhanced by beginning with the phenomenon of emerging order. The theory of Dissipative Structures suggests that research…

The paper examines the various ways that qualitative researchers can use and interpret numbers, official statistics, and other quantitative data. It puts forth the position that qualitative researchers, in their quest for understanding, have too often viewed official statistics with only a cursory or descriptive analysis without deeper reflection…

An experiment is deemed to be valid, inasmuch as valid cause-effect relationships are established, if the results are due only to the manipulated independent variable (possess internal validity) and are generalizable to groups, environments, and contexts outside of the experimental settings (possess external validity). Consequently, all…

Ethnographic research should not be limited by categorization and typology. Disciplined self-reflection can enrich such studies through systemic examination that can lead to new insights. (SK)

Interviews can facilitate exploration of one's own world; interviewers can describe how their construction of the world differs from those of their respondents. The subjectivity of the qualitative interview makes discovery possible. (SK)

Qualitative research offers access to an understanding of the ways in which people interpret their everyday experiences. It is appropriate for home economists to be able to evaluate and use the results of this mode of inquiry. (JOW)

Deals with issues of validity and reliability in qualitative research in education. Discusses philosophical assumptions underlying the concepts of internal validity, reliability, and external validity or generalizability. Presents strategies congruent with a qualitative research perspective for ensuring the rigor and trustworthiness of findings.…

By the end of the 1990s, the topic of spirituality as distinguished from religion was being discussed in higher education conferences and publications. Using qualitative research methods, this study examines definitions of spirituality in higher education literature. The researcher argues that (1) the emerging discussion of spirituality can be…

Qualitative researchers in human resource development (HRD) frequently use in-depth interviews as a research method. Yet reports from qualitative studies in HRD commonly pay little or no analytical attention to the co-construction of interview data. That is, reports of qualitative research projects often treat interviews as a transparent method of…

The purpose of this article is to contribute to the discussion concerning the value and validity of fiction, and arts-based approaches more broadly, as research. I offer this contribution through a narrative: "Conference Story." The narrative involves its characters, in an Oxford pub, debating the merits and otherwise of Peter Clough's (2002)…

Researchers usually explain individual offending in terms of background factors like low self-control and association with delinquent peers. Such factors reflect the routine or typical aspects of the individual's life over an extended period of time and they influence the individual's predisposition for crime. Researchers also sometimes explain…

This essay calls for qualitative policy analysis that can engage strategically with the increased calls for the usefulness of social policy toward the improvement of educational practice. Michel Foucault's concept of scientificity is used as a tool against the "repositivization" at work in neo-liberal times and its "rage for accountability" where…

The recent development of high-quality voice recognition software greatly facilitates the production of transcriptions for research and allows for objective and full transcription as well as annotated interpretation. Commercial speech recognition programs that are appropriate for generating transcriptions are available from a number of vendors,…

Ethical issues in qualitative nursing research include the following: what to study, which participants, what methods, how to achieve informed consent, when to terminate interviews and when to probe, when treatment should supersede research, and what and how to document in case studies. (SK)

Today, there are critics of teacher education who believe that the system itself is archaic. These critics say that "schools of education" are by their very nature incapable of educating teachers. They say there is nothing worth preserving in them. In this paper, the author proposes that teacher education should engender a set of…