Qualitative research is "about the perception of qualities, those that pervade intimate social relations and those that constitute complex social institutions. . .It is also about the meanings of those qulatities and the value we assign to them. - Elliot Eisner

*Required Readings and Activities

Module One: Broad Qualitative Concepts
1.2 Articulates assumptions of basic research communities: positivist, interpretive, critical and understands basic qualitative methods: case study, ethnography, phenomenology, narrative, etc.

A. Readings: Merriam, Chap 1 & 2; Eisner, Chap 1, 2 & 4.

*Eisner, Elliot. 1997. The New Frontier in Qualitative Research Methodology. Qualitative Inquiry. Vol 3, No 3, pp 259-273.

*Gallagher, Deborah. 1998. The Scientific Knowledge Base of Special Education: Do we know what we think we know? Exceptional Children. vol 64. No. 4. pp. 493-502.

Morse, Janice. 1999. Myth 19: Qualitative inquiry is not systematic. Qualitative Health Research, Vol. 9, No. 5. pp 573-574.

*Sipe, Lawrence & Constabel, Susan. 1996. A Chart of four Contemporary Research Paradigms: Methaphors for the Modes of Inquiry. Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education. Vol. 1, pp, 153-164.

NEW BOOK! - If you're wondering how "theory" fits into qual studies, here's a great new resource - Theoretical Frameworks in Qualitative Research, 2006, Edited by Vincent Anfara and Norma Mertz.

B. Web and Other Links:

**Nine Perspectives -Chart one - Postpositivism, Pragmatism, Constructivism, Ethics, Chart two - Critical Perspective, Interpretivism, Race, Ethnicity, and Gender, Arts-Based, and Poststructuralism. - From: Introduction to the Philosophies of Research and Criticism in Education and the Social Sciences, pg 46 and 47, by James Paul (A Worthwhile purchase!!)
*Four Paradigms - Rossman and Rallis
Tesch's Art-Science Like Continuum
Metaphors from Freed's Classes, Rhoda Sommers Metaphor
Rita Van Horn's Dissertation - an example of quantifying qualitative data
*Qualitative and Quantiative Research Compared - Ratcliff

C. Discussion Starters/Reflective Journal Topics: (Choose one topic and start or continue a discussion thread.)

1. In what ways are various qualitative methodologies the same and different? Give examples.

2. If you wanted to study the problem of "college dropouts", how would you do your study as a positivist, interpretivist or critical theorist? Discuss advantages and disadvantages of each.

D. Experiences/Activities:

1. Webquest

*2. Review 20 dissertation abstracts on your potential research topic. Categorize according to research type: positivist, interpretive, critical. Was it easy to tell what kind of research each abstract represented? Then develop a chart as described in the Assignments on your weekly schedule - in the syllabus - e-mail your chart to freed@andrews.edu.

3. Categorize dissertation abstracts according to qualitative method: case study, ethnography, phenomenology, narrative, other. What made this task easy? difficult?

E. Portfolio Documentation:

1. Your metaphor conveying your understanding of qualitative research.

2. A brief description with examples of the kinds of research currently being conducted in your profession.