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…

The microcomputer offers social science field researchers a valuable tool for managing qualitative research data. In addition to the flexibility and efficiency of the microcomputer, the logic governing its programming and operation imposes a framework on the research process which necessitates that research decisions and strategies be explicit and…

The Michigan Department of Education conducts an annual follow-up survey to determine the employment and continuing educational status of students who have graduated or withdrawn from its secondary vocational education programs. This standard survey form was modified by presenting a range of values and increasing the question length to improve the…

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…

Discusses the functions of educational research. Examines differences between decision-oriented research and conclusion-oriented research. Urges researchers to improve the quality of their writing. (FMW)

A comparison is made between the tools of observation and research used by journalists to study society and the media, and the qualitative and clinical research tools used in the social and psychological sciences. The first part of the paper, a journalistic approach to sociology, traces the notion of the sociologist as a super-reporter using…

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…

Informal discussion groups, "rap groups", have been found to be an effective method for establishing rapport and understanding with mentally retarded adults in sheltered workshop settings. To investigate the use of rap groups as a field research approach with mentally retarded adults, four groups of 6 to 9 mentally retarded adults,…

In September of 1981, the Fatherhood Project at Bank Street College in New York City began field research investigating the ways in which America's major social institutions were responding to the call for greater male involvement in childrearing. The research effort attempted to identify innovations in five major institutional sectors: the law,…

This paper examines some ethical problems that arose in a study of secondary curriculum, where educational criticism was used as a primary research strategy. A study on the subject of curriculum consonance was conducted in three tenth-grade history classrooms. In its original design, the study was primarily concerned with the correspondence…

Students who enrolled in women's studies courses at a college serving mainly students from working and lower middle class backgrounds were assessed for attitudes toward women and degree of sex-typing at the beginning and end of three women's studies courses. The study was conducted over three consecutive semesters in which 41 women and 6 men…

This report is drawn from an ethnographic study still in progress of the principalship of a comprehensive public senior high school in a suburban community. Following a discussion of the paucity of research offering good descriptions of what principals actually do as opposed to what they should do, the study methodology is outlined, including…

The desire to abolish the gap between research theory and classroom practice has sparked an increasing interest in field-based research among science educators. Although most researchers are aware of the standard meanings of informed consent and confidentiality, and there are some codes of ethical principles published by such groups as the…

Laboratory simulations combine the strengths of lab experiments and field studies while avoiding many of their liabilities. They permit the emotional involvement, the time needed for development of norms and interlocked systems of interaction, and the broad range of variables typical of field settings, yet allow for experimental controls and…

A formally conducted field study was used to investigate the work of vice-principals of eight large Southern California high schools and the relationship of their work to the school as an organization. Most of the vice-principals studied deal with student discipline, but four have important discipline responsibilities, which they exercise by…