Patti Lather

Bio: Patti Lather is an academic researcher from Ohio State University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Educational research & Scientism. The author has an hindex of 33, co-authored 63 publications receiving 9350 citations. Previous affiliations of Patti Lather include Minnesota State University, Mankato.

Research as Praxis

Abstract: The author, who is concerned with the methodological implications of critical theory, explores issues in the developing area of emancipatory research. She defines the concept of "research as praxis...

Issues of Validity in Openly Ideological Research: Between a Rock and a Soft Place.

Abstract: In this paper, I attempt to reconceptualize validity within the context of openly ideological research.~ The usefulness of this reconceptualization is tested by applying it to examples from three explicitly value-based research programs: feminist research, neo-Marxist critical ethnography, and Freirian "empowering" research. 2 Finally, validity issues within research committed to a more equitable social order are discussed.

FERTILE OBSESSION: Validity After Poststructuralism

Abstract: [P]ost-modernism involves the development of new rhetorics of science, new stories of knowledge ‘after truth’‥. The postmodern world is without guarantees, without ‘method’‥. All we can do is invent. We must construct and exemplify the rhetorics of the future … through … endless stories. Like this one. Tomlinson (1989), pp.44,57.

Critical frames in educational research: Feminist and post‐structural perspectives

Abstract: (1992). Critical frames in educational research: Feminist and post‐structural perspectives. Theory Into Practice: Vol. 31, Qualitative Issues in Educational Research, pp. 87-99.

Getting Lost: Feminist Efforts Toward a Double(d) Science

Abstract: Getting Lost is an experiment in and of method against the normative critical framework of much feminist methodology in order to ask: if it is what it does, in a nominalist vein, what then is feminist methodology? The answers the book puts forward include: effaced, abjected, uncertain, engaged, reflexive (perhaps to a fault), and deeply invested in a sustained ethical engagement with those we study, particularly those with less power, while troubling what Adele terms "confession, testimonial and the intrusiveness of much research." Situated as an index of more general tensions in the human sciences, I focus on how feminist methodology engages with a problematic of loss in taking fuller account of the fall into language and the loss of pure presence. The book's sensibility is toward that which shakes any assured ontology of the "real," of presence and absence, a post-critical logic of haunting and undecidables. In this, it is important to remember that my methodological musings collected in the book are grounded in Troubling the Angels: Women Living with HIV/ AIDS,1 a study that preceded the "new" anti-retroviral treatments of the mid-1990s. Hence this was, in many senses, a study of living with dying. Not-knowing was not difficult in such a space and I felt keenly how not wanting to not know is a violence that subsumes the Other into the Same. Abstracting a philosophy of inquiry from an archive of such work set me up well to explore the enablements that might be imagined from loss.

Paradigmatic Controversies, Contradictions, and Emerging Confluences.

Abstract: n our chapter for the first edition of the Handbook of Qualitative Research, we focused on the contention among various research paradigms for legitimacy and intellectual and p;uadigmatic hegemony (Guba & Lincoln, 1994). The postmodern paradigms that we discussed (postmodernist critical theory and constructivism) 1 were in contention with the received positivist and postpositivist paradigms for legitimacy, and with one another for intellectual legitimacy. In the half dozen years that have elapsed since that chapter was published, substantial change has occurred in the landscape of social scientific inquiry. On the matter of legitimacy, we observe that readers familiar with the literature on methods and paradigms reflect a high interest in ontologies and epistemologies that differ sharply from those undergirding conventional social science. Second, even those est::~blished professionals trained in quantitative social science (including the two of us) want to learn more about qualitative approaches, because new young professionals being mentored in graduate schools are asking serious questions about and looking for guidance in qualitatively oriented studies and dissertations. Third, the number of qualitative texts, research papers, workshops, and training materials has exploded. Indeed, it would be difficult to miss the distinct turn of the social sciences tow::~rd more interpretive, postmodern, and criticalist practices and theorizing (Bloland, 1989, 1995). This nonpositivist orientation has created a context (surround) in which virtually no study can go unchallenged by proponents of contending paradigms. Further, it

Determining Validity in Qualitative Inquiry

Abstract: (2000). Determining Validity in Qualitative Inquiry. Theory Into Practice: Vol. 39, Getting Good Qualitative Data to Improve Eduational Practice, pp. 124-130.

Qualitative Case Study Methodology: Study Design and Implementation for Novice Researchers

Abstract: Qualitative case study methodology provides tools for researchers to study complex phenomena within their contexts. When the approach is applied correctly, it becomes a valuable method for health science research to develop theory, evaluate programs, and develop interventions. The purpose of this paper is to guide the novice researcher in identifying the key elements for designing and implementing qualitative case study research projects. An overview of the types of case study designs is provided along with general recommendations for writing the research questions, developing propositions, determining the “case” under study, binding the case and a discussion of data sources and triangulation. To facilitate application of these principles, clear examples of research questions, study propositions and the different types of case study designs

In a Different Voice. Psychological Theory and Women’s Development. Cambridge, MA (Harvard University Press) 1982.

Abstract: Introduction 1. Woman's Place in Man's Life Cycle 2. Images of Relationship 3. Concepts of Self and Morality 4. Crisis and Transition 5. Women's Rights and Women's Judgment 6. Visions of Maturity References Index of Study Participants General Index

Toward a Definition of Mixed Methods Research

Abstract: The purpose of this article is to examine how the field of mixed methods currently is being defined. The authors asked many of the current leaders in mixed methods research how they define mixed methods research. The authors provide the leaders' definitions and discuss the content found as they searched for the criteria of demarcation. The authors provide a current answer to the question, What is mixed methods research? They also briefly summarize the recent history of mixed methods and list several issues that need additional work as the field continues to advance. They argue that mixed methods research is one of the three major “research paradigms” (quantitative research, qualitative research, and mixed methods research). The authors hope this article will contribute to the ongoing dialogue about how mixed methods research is defined and conceptualized by its practitioners.