Familiarity and distance is an issue that is much discussed in ethnographic fieldwork. This paper focuses on the topic of balancing familiarity and distance when the researcher is directly or indirectly part of the field, which in the study consists of an adult education context of two different teacher-training courses for upper secondary…

Research within and across cultures is depicted in four case studies: a black woman interviewing black women, Asian students in the United States interviewing people back home, an African professor and African businesswomen, and a cross-cultural team studying aging in a non-Western culture. Insider/outsider status of researchers is described in…

As part of a symposium on challenges and problems of adult education researchers in different settings, recent research activities at one private independent research organization were examined. Three projects of the American Instituties for Research (AIR) were reviewed, all relating to adult development and aging. The first examined career…

This guide is designed to assist adult educators who are also first-time practitioner-researchers. It is organized in three parts. Part 1 is an introduction to practitioner research. The following steps of designing and conducting a research project are examined in a section on strategies and methods: identify a research question, collect data,…

The following papers are included: "Social Classification of Women's Work" (Benn, Burton); "Developing Models of Learning from Experience" (Boud, Walker); "'Research Reflecting Practice?'" (Edwards, Usher); "Metaphors and Their Implications for Research and Practice in Adult and Community Education" (Hunt); "'Common-Sense' Approach to Reflection"…

A non-Native researcher describes undertaking an ethnography of perceptions about Native control of education among staff and students at a Native adult educational institution in British Columbia and discusses concerns about her role in the power struggle and the legitimacy and adequacy of such research. Contains 40 references. (SV)

Proceedings of the 1979 conference of the Southern Association for Institutional Research (SAIR) are presented. The conference theme was the future of institutional research. Contents include reports of preconference workshops, speeches, panel reports, abstracts of papers, and reports pertaining to the affairs of the SAIR. Documents and authors…