PUB TYPE Viewpoints (120)

Noting the increasing interest in qualitative research in general and ethnographic research in particular, the authors of this report clarify the place of the latter within the former. The authors presen six criteria for an ethnographic approach to education, illustrated with examples, and discuss ethnography's advantages and disadvantages. The six criteria presented are that (1) the problem be discovered in the field, (2) the senior investigator conduct the bulk of the field work, (3) the field work take at least a school year, (4) the senior investigator shall have had cross-cultural experience, (5) multiple research methods be utilized, and (6) the finished product present a wealth of primary data from the studied group. The authors next demonstrate the variety in qualitative research by describing some dimensions on which qualitative studies vary. In the area of data collection, qualitative strategies can vary in at least five ways: (1) the number of sites studied, (2) the extent of researcher immersion in the situation studied, (3) the extent to which activities are structured in advance, (4) the nature of the observation frameworks, and (5) reporting strategies. Data analysis can follow one or more of three approaches: the intuitive, the procedural, or the intersubjective. (Author/PGD) * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * * from the original document.