In this article, taken from the 2019 ASHE Presidential address, Kristen A. Renn argues that to stay relevant and also to influence the direction of postsecondary education, there must be engagement in the will to reimagine the study of higher education. She discusses the challenges and opportunities for the future bound up in the fact that higher…

The relation of research to politics is described in three stages: (1) securing the contract in response to a request for proposals (RFP) format; (2) conducting the actual field research on site and in a university setting; and (3) securing final sign off on the completed research product. A second purpose of this paper is to compare the…

Interviewing has been a recognized mainstay of ethnographic fieldwork for more than 100 years. Coupled with participant observation, it was taken to be the complete corpus of anthropological and sociological inquiry activity. Although the repertoire of fieldwork inquirers has grown, interviewing remains a primary data collection technique,…

This paper presents some insights about the rigors of ethnographic fieldwork gained in the conduct of an ethnographic study of the Muscogee people of Oklahoma (called "Creek" by European settlers). The difficulties and issues discussed include: (1) gaining entry; (2) selection of key informants; (3) ways informants tested the investigator; (4)…

Describes a fieldwork training school for graduate students sponsored by the University of Georgia (UGA). Bringing graduate students to the summer program at the school gives school organizers new perspectives on their own work, surroundings, and relationships. (SLD)

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…

Problem Based Learning (PBL) has been adopted around the world as a philosophy and method for teaching and learning in professional education in particular. Advocates of the approach have made many claims for its success. Despite the apparent widespread use of this approach and the plethora of published papers on PBL, there are numerous basic…

This paper reports on methods of interweaving ethnography in undergraduate communication courses, based on the premise that ethnographic fieldwork facilitates students' awareness of the contexts of their own meaning-making practices. The basic approach in the paper is to ask students to reflect on basic concepts of organizational or interpersonal…

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…

Based on personal experiences in conducting intensive ethnographic fieldwork, the social, emotional, and personal aspects of fieldwork that are often neglected in the literature are considered. The fieldwork involved observations within five diverse secondary schools during a 2-year period in conjunction with a project on microcomputer…

For students who live and study at a branch campus of a mid-sized state university in southwest Pennsylvania, the 30 miles between them and their parent university represents a geographic gulf. No courier carries mail or deliveries between the main campus and the branches, and as a result, students at the branches have no access to the campus…

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…

By using small-scale artificially created archaeologic sites, a teacher can provide students with a time-efficient approach in which to master some basic archaeological techniques. In an artificially created setting, the students can become familiar with conditions they might meet in the field. In a short period of time, students may be exposed to…

This paper focuses on the technique of role-switching as a workable field relationship tactic in the observer's work site. It describes the nature of subject use of the observer's dual status during the research activity, and conceptualizes the relationship between this type of researcher-role management and the premise of role reciprocity in…

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,…