Showing papers in "International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education in 1995"
TL;DR: The authors divide narrative inquiries into two distinct groups based on Bruner's types of cognition: paradigmatic-type narrative inquiry gathers stories for its data and uses paradigmatic analytic procedures to produce taxonomies and categories out of common elements across the database.
Abstract: Narrative inquiry refers to a subset of qualitative research designs in which stories are used to describe human action. The term narrative has been employed by qualitative researchers with a variety of meanings. In the context of narrative inquiry, narrative refers to a discourse form in which events and happenings are configured into a temporal unity by means of a plot. Bruner (1985) designates two types of cognition: paradigmatic, which operates by recognizing elements as members of a category; and narrative, which operates by combining elements into an emplotted story. Narrative inquiries divide into two distinct groups based on Bruner's types of cognition. Paradigmatic‐type narrative inquiry gathers stories for its data and uses paradigmatic analytic procedures to produce taxonomies and categories out of the common elements across the database. Narrative‐type narrative inquiry gathers events and happenings as its data and uses narrative analytic procedures to produce explanatory stories.
3,472 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors define fidelity as a criterion for practising and evaluating narrative inquiry, and propose a narrative configuration in qualitative analysis for qualitative analysis, which can be found in the context of educational storysharing.
Abstract: Narrative configuration in qualitative analysis, Donald E. Polkinghorne Fidelity as a Criterion for practising and evaluating narrative inquiry, Donald Blumenfeld-Jones Distancing passion: narratives in social science, Catherine Emihovich Audience and the politics of narrative, Jan Nespor and Liz Barber Persuasive writings, vigilant readings, and reconstructed characters: the paradox of trust in educational storysharing, Thomas Barone Narrative strategies for case reports, Nancy Zeller The story so far: personal knowledge and the political, Ivor F. Goodson.
661 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a critical study of learning to teach is presented, focusing on the relation between the discourses that render ethnography intelligible and the ethnographic report, and the role of poststructural theories in the production of ethnographic narratives.
Abstract: This article engages current poststructural debates over ethnographic representation. It questions three types of ethnographic authority: the authority of empiricism, the authority of language, and the authority of reading. In performing a form of self‐speculative critique, the author moves behind the scenes of her own ethnography, Practice Makes Practice: A Critical Study of Learning to Teach, to consider the problem of what poststructural theories “do” to ethnographic writing. Two related themes are elaborated in relation to how poststructural debates fashioned interpretive efforts: conceptual issues in the poststructural study of teaching and theoretical issues in the production of ethnographic narratives. Can there be an educational ethnography that exceeds the constraints of humanism? What if the ethnographer began not just to question the discourse of others but to engage the relation between the discourses that render ethnography intelligible and the ethnographic report?
409 citations
TL;DR: The authors presented a post-modernist perspective that critiques both positivist and postpositivist characterizations of interviewing, and also showed how the power relationship between the interviewer and the interviewee might be reconceptualized within a post modernist perspective.
Abstract: Since the emergence of qualitative research in education, research interviewing has been naively accepted as a reasonably straightforward method for gathering information. Even Lincoln and Guba's ground‐breaking postpositivist work, Naturalistic Inquiry (1985), largely treated interviewing in this manner. More recently, other postpositivists, such as Mishler (1986), have criticized the traditional approach to interviewing and suggested new ways to conduct and understand the research interview. But these latter postpositivists still retain thoroughly modernist assumptions that they embed in their reconstructions of research interviewing. This paper presents, in contrast, a postmodernist perspective that critiques both positivist and postpositivist characterizations of interviewing. This paper also shows how one aspect of interviewing – the power relationship between the interviewer and the interviewee — might be reconceptualized within a postmodernist perspective. The paper ends with a call for appreciatio...
313 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a criterion of "believability" is established: the narrative is believable when it can be credited with conveying, convincingly, that the events occurred and were felt in ways the narrator is asserting.
Abstract: “Fidelity” is presented as a criterion for practicing and evaluating narrative inquiry, linking narrative inquiry to both social science and art. “Fidelity” is contrasted with “truth” and characterized as moral in character. “Fidelity” is further characterized as a “betweenness,” construed as both intersubjective (obligations between teller and receiver) and as a resonance between the story told and the social and cultural context of a story. Storytelling as an arena of purposeful reconstruction of events on the part of both the teller and the narrative inquirer links narrative inquiry to art making. Using Ricoeur's work on emplotment and Langer's work in aesthetic philosophy, a criterion of “believability” is established. The narrative is believable when it can be credited with conveying, convincingly, that the events occurred and were felt in ways the narrator is asserting. Dilemmas with achieving “fidelity” and aesthetics in narrative inquiry are investigated.
200 citations
TL;DR: The authors examined the role of personal stories and narratives in teacher education research and concluded that stories and narrative in educational research can help to identify the cultural place of stories in contemporary societies, and link the emergence of such genres inside teacher education with broader cultural patterns within contemporary societies.
Abstract: This paper looks critically at a number of forms of inquiry that are now developing in the field of teacher education. Narrative methods and starving are two associated genres that have emerged forcefully in the past decade as ways of seeking to represent the lived experience of schooling. It is because of the very potential of these methodologies to bring us closer to the experience of schooling that our scrutiny should focus sharply upon both the strengths and weaknesses of these methods. To help the process of identifying the cultural place of stories and narrative, the paper seeks to link the emergence of such genres inside teacher education with broader cultural patterns within contemporary societies. In particular, the use of personal stories in the global media is examined; and as a result, a series of questions is asked and issues are raised. Finally, some conclusions regarding the role of stories and narrative in educational research are provided. Here, some antidotes to the absence of historical...
159 citations
TL;DR: This article argued that stories addressing educational phenomena can promote emancipatory moments within readers and thereby earn their trust, and suggested that the integrity of such trustworthy stories be honored by publication in education journals.
Abstract: This paper addresses the issue of trust/mistrust in relation to the discourses of educational storytelling. Poststructuralists have highlighted the power relationships embedded within these kinds of discourse. Their recommended attitude is one of suspicion. But the author insists that, like discursive forms of critical science, story genres can sometimes achieve critical significance. That is, stories addressing educational phenomena can promote emancipatory moments within readers and thereby earn their trust. Examples of such moments in the life of the author‐as‐reader are provided. The author suggests that the integrity of such trustworthy stories be honored by publication in education journals.
136 citations
TL;DR: The authors explored the use of narratives in social science writing and posits that the way in which academics choose to display their meaning shapes their identity as scholars, and the implications of this role with regard to truth value and authenticity of narrative accounts.
Abstract: How knowledge is framed determines its importance. This essay explores the use of narratives in social science writing and posits that the way in which academics choose to display their meaning shapes their identity as scholars. The argument that emotion and reason can be linked through narratives is discussed in relation to issues of textual organization, narrative voice, and the politics of metaphor. By using narratives, scholars become storytellers, and the implications of this role with regard to truth value and authenticity of narrative accounts is examined. Becoming comfortable with narrative accounts means accepting the idea that the world has no fixed rules for assigning meaning to behavior. The answer to this existential dilemma lies in collaborating with others to build consensus around shared meaning and to ensure the inclusion of multiple voices.
104 citations
TL;DR: This paper conducted an interview about anthropological research with Jean Lave, focusing on anthropological field work on apprenticeship among Liberian tailors and the practicalities of doing field work, including the use of interviews; the role of interpretation and theory in empirical work in the field; and the issue of subjectivity in reporting anthropological studies.
Abstract: Steinar Kvale has conducted an interview about anthropological research with Jean Lave. The interview focuses on Jean Lave's anthropological field work on apprenticeship among Liberian tailors. It pursues issues such as whether there is an anthropological “method”; the practicalities of doing field work, including the use of interviews; the role of interpretation and theory in empirical work in the field; and the issue of subjectivity in reporting anthropological studies.
69 citations
TL;DR: The authors explored the time and space conditions of two writing genres: narration and description, and argued that the new journalism, along with the nonfiction novel and ethnography are useful narrative models for case reports.
Abstract: This paper explores what for many qualitative researchers is their most difficult task: writing a qualitative research report or case study. It explores the time and space conditions of two writing genres: narration and description. It argues that the new journalism, along with the nonfiction novel and ethnography, are useful narrative models for case reports. Several techniques managed well by new journalists and other narrative writers are discussed: (a) scene‐by‐scene construction; (b) characterization through ample use of dialogue; (c) point of view; (d) full rendering of details; (e) interior monologue; and (f) composite characterization. Two sample narratives illustrate the possible application of narrative techniques in a case report.
57 citations
TL;DR: This paper explored how definitions of audience shape and are shaped by the politics of writing, in particular how the use of narrative in collaboratively constructed texts situates the texts politically, and how audience assumptions shape the collaborative production of a text into a political act within a local setting.
Abstract: This paper explores how definitions of audience shape and are shaped by the politics of writing, in particular how the use of narrative in collaboratively constructed texts situates the texts politically. The paper describes the writing of a book of “resistance narratives,” jointly co‐authored by university‐based writers and parents of children with disabilities. The paper is not about the parents’ struggles per se, but it is about how those struggles shaped the book and about how audience assumptions shape the collaborative production of a text into a political act within a local setting.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors consider the increasing use of context in everyday educational talk and in educational research and begin to consider the implications of this trend for the theory and practice of education.
Abstract: This paper draws attention to the trend to consider context in educational discourse. It documents the increasing use of “context” in everyday educational talk and in educational research and begins to consider the implications of this trend for the theory and practice of education. The paper considers different ways that context is used and suggests that over the last 5‐10 years conceptions of context have shifted. As well as being understood spatially as the outside or backdrop relative to a phenomenon of interest, context is increasingly being considered in a more ephemeral figure and ground relationship. I argue that this shift marks a significant reframing of education and its implications in the practice and politics of education and educational research.
TL;DR: In this article, a study of the journal-keeping practices of school principals provides a glimpse into the use of narrative as a possible methodological strategy for understanding the stories of administrators and how personal values, political pressures and organizational concerns are translated into actions that are intended to solve day-to-day school problems.
Abstract: The use of narrative, which has informed the study of teaching, has only been applied in a limited manner to studies focusing on school administrators. This study of the journal‐keeping practices of school principals provides a glimpse into the use of narrative as a possible methodological strategy for understanding the stories of administrators. It begins to define how personal values, political pressures, and organizational concerns are translated into actions that are intended to solve day‐to‐day school problems. It illuminates tacit knowledge of how administrators sort through their often chaotic lives. Implications of the study for future research are examined.
TL;DR: As an increasing number of educational institutions respond to the call for reform by experimenting with new structures, practices, and processes, it becomes critical that researchers and evaluator as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: As an increasing number of educational institutions respond to the call for reform by experimenting with new structures, practices, and processes, it becomes critical that researchers and evaluator...
TL;DR: This article examined patterns of longitudinal cultural adaptation demonstrated by a group of professionally successful immigrants who moved from Transylvania, Romania, to Israel and found that these immigrants perceived initial educational encounters as oppressive, alienating, and antagonistic.
Abstract: The paper examines patterns of longitudinal cultural adaptation demonstrated by a group of professionally successful immigrants who moved from Transylvania, Romania, to Israel. On a continuum of attitudes towards immigrants ranging from resistance to active solicitation as a function of underlying ideologies, Israel's emphasis on nation‐building represents the positive pole. Its educational expression is a professed interest in immigrant children as the citizens of the future. Nevertheless, the data indicate that these immigrants, though not regarded as culturally remote from Israel's Western‐oriented mainstream ethos, perceived initial educational encounters as oppressive, alienating, and antagonistic. They used these encounters as levers to achieve educational success. Several conditions for favorable cross‐cultural adaptation of populations on scholastic and social levels are identified.
TL;DR: In this article, a conversation with Maxine Greene International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education: Vol 8, No 4, Vol 4, pp 319-328 is described, with a discussion of social imagination.
Abstract: (1995) Social imagination: a conversation with Maxine Greene International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education: Vol 8, No 4, pp 319-328
TL;DR: The authors explored the perceptions of university supervisors with direct responsibility for assessing student teachers in their capstone preservice practicum and found that these individuals have considerable influence over the future of student teachers because of the weight their evaluations have for future employment.
Abstract: Student teaching is a public act, one in which there are several pairs of scrutinizing eyes looking on: pupils, cooperating teachers, principals, parents, and university supervisors. The majority of student teachers perform satisfactorily and develop strategies to cope with the demands of their classrooms. Some, however, “fail.” They either remove themselves voluntarily and are given a grade deemed to be unsatisfactory for obtaining provisional teacher certification or a teaching position, or they are given a failing grade. Focused on “failing” student teachers, this article explores the perceptions of university supervisors with direct responsibility for assessing preservice teachers in their capstone preservice practicum. These individuals have considerable influence over the future of student teachers because of the weight their evaluations have for future employment. The questions addressed include: What does it mean to “fail” in student teaching? Why does it happen? What are the characteristics of st...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explored the mechanisms guiding differentiation among non-university bound high schoolers from disadvantaged families in their job decision making and acquisition, and suggested that variations result from an interaction of individual habitus (within the collective habitus of nonuniversitybound students) and available resources (family-based and school-based) and that the ways in which these resources are presented to individual students are influential.
Abstract: This paper explores the mechanisms guiding differentiation among nonuniversity‐bound high schoolers from disadvantaged families in their job decision making and acquisition Examining microlevel schooling processes over one year, it is argued that one differentiation mechanism is the individual's varying perceptions and consequent uses of school‐based resources that, in principle, are available to all within the school but, in reality, are not fully utilized by all The paper then seeks to explain the mechanisms whereby these variations emerge and draw upon habitus as an analytical tool It suggests that variations result from an interaction of individual habitus (within the “collective” habitus of nonuniversity‐bound students) and available resources (family‐based and school‐based) and that the ways in which these resources are presented to individual students are influential School and family can in fact “intervene” in the student's perception and activation of the resources The highly structured prac
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present results from an ethnographic study of an alternative public school for pregnant and parenting teenage girls, where the goal is to facilitate the education of school-aged girls while they are pregnant and until they are ready to go back to their regular school after childbirth.
Abstract: This article presents results from an ethnographic study of an alternative public school for pregnant and parenting teenage girls. The focus here is upon a central finding of this study concerning the ways in which the school program managed the needs and concerns of the pregnant and parenting girls it served. The official goal of the school is to facilitate the education of school‐aged girls while they are pregnant and until they are ready to go back to their regular school after childbirth. It will be shown how the school excluded the private lives of the students from school life and how this school's management orientation undermined the potential for the students involved to explore, understand, and deal with their own needs and problems.
TL;DR: The impact of censorship experiences on 13 public school teachers in southern Appalachian communities was studied by as mentioned in this paper, who focused on the nature and meaning of such experiences and their impact on educational philosophy and curriculum practices.
Abstract: The impact of censorship experiences on 13 public school teachers in southern Appalachian communities was studied. Qualitative interviews with the teachers focused on the nature and meaning of censorship experiences and their impact on educational philosophy and curriculum practices. The 13 teacher‐participants experienced a total of 55 censorship events which spanned an array of topics, teaching methods, and materials. Only a few of the incidents became public. Most were unreported events that took place between a teacher and parent or other objector, suggesting that censorship may be more pervasive than is estimated by quantitative approaches. Conflicts between traditional values and the pressures of modernity within a culturally homogeneous region are examined.
TL;DR: In this article, the author's work as a researcher-teacher examines storytelling activities of preschool children in her own classroom and proposes that university-based researchers who take on the role of teacher both construct and define an enactment of self in the classroom.
Abstract: This article focuses on the author's work as a researcher‐teacher, examining storytelling activities of preschool children in her own classroom. By examining ways in which one university‐based researcher dealt with the demands of being both teacher and researcher, this paper proposes that university‐based researchers who take on the role of teacher both construct and define an enactment‐of‐self in the classroom. In a Janus‐faced kind of interplay, the researcher draws on teacher skills, and the teacher draws on the research perspective and continuously walks the line between the moment‐to‐moment demands of each role.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors focus on rural women's motivation for careers and a higher education and find that achievement can be oriented toward nurturance as well as independence, and the factors that motivated these students were also barriers to their success in higher education.
Abstract: This ethnography focuses on rural women's motivation for careers and a higher education. As in other areas of study such as science and medicine, the psychology of motivation has been shaped by pioneering studies that used males as subjects. Data derived from interviews and participant observation of 16 women in higher education established additional motivational factors for females, namely that achievement can be oriented toward nurturance as well as independence. The factors that motivated these students were also barriers to their success in higher education. Participants were mostly older‐than‐average students, members of the working class, and the first generation in their families to enroll in college. Most of the informants were considered “at risk” during their K‐12 school years. They were motivated to achieve despite overwhelming odds such as low SAT scores, dropping out of school, and/or having been teenage mothers.
TL;DR: In this article, a case study focused on the personal development of a low-income single mother who participated in site-based, decision-making processes at an urban elementary school, and participant observation and interview data collected from 1989 to 1992 were examined to reveal the difficulties and positive outcomes for this parent and the school when opportunity and support accompany participation in varied levels of involvement in school activities.
Abstract: This case study focuses on the personal development of a low‐income single mother who participated in site‐based, decision‐making processes at an urban elementary school. Participant observation and interview data collected from 1989 to 1992 were examined to reveal the difficulties and positive outcomes for this parent and the school when opportunity and support accompany participation in varied levels of involvement in school activities.
TL;DR: In this article, an ethnographic investigation of children's day-to-day classroom interactions and the historical and cultural experiences they bring to school highlights how Carib students appropriate, construct, and redefine various aspects of school knowledge while rejecting others.
Abstract: In English‐speaking Caribbean states, the local languages (Patwa) are historically considered an obstacle to the learning of the official language, English, and subsequent success at school. At the classroom level, students repeatedly try to speak their Patwa, and they are discouraged by both nonverbal and verbal pedagogical strategies. By studying children's day‐to‐day classroom interactions and the historical and cultural experiences they bring to school, this ethnographic investigation highlights how Carib students appropriate, construct, and redefine various aspects of school knowledge while rejecting others. Deep analysis of social practices reveals persistent discontinuities and interruptions in historical traditions that assert a curriculum in which the local culture and language is excluded at school. The inherited British curriculum emerged as a significant site of conflict over history, culture, and power. These struggles are constructed over an education of exclusion that continues to produce t...
TL;DR: The authors found that students found it difficult to exercise much control over decisions affecting their writing and, perhaps as a result, cared little about what they wrote and were less likely to revise their work and more likely to produce weak, vapid writing.
Abstract: Current theory and practice in literacy education emphasize the importance of student independence, autonomy, and choice — what has commonly been referred to as “ownership.” Presumably, students who are not invested in their writing, for example, are less likely to revise their work and more likely to produce weak, vapid writing. Students in two 7th‐ and two 8th‐grade classes were observed as they wrote during their language arts periods over a period of six months. In general, students found it difficult to exercise much control over decisions affecting their writing and, perhaps as a result, cared little about what they wrote. The study also indicates that ownership is a much more subtle and complicated concept than previously recognized.
TL;DR: A recent exploratory study investigating beliefs about mathematics held by Zimbabwean secondary school students indicate that the students believe "traditional" ethnomathematics exists; is legitimate mathematics; is the foundation upon which school mathematics expanded; but is too elementary, basic, and routine to be regarded as serious mathematics as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Problem solving is a buzz phrase in conversations, workshops, and conferences on mathematics education in many parts of the world. Largely influenced by the constructivist ideology of knowing, research in problem solving has led to a recognition by many educators that (a) beliefs about the nature and practice of mathematics can exert a strong influence on the problem‐solving process, and (A) both school‐based and out‐of‐school‐based (cultural) mathematical experiences contribute in shaping the kinds of beliefs and conceptions about mathematics that students cultivate. Findings from a recent exploratory study investigating beliefs about mathematics held by Zimbabwean secondary school students indicate that the students believe “traditional” ethnomathematics exists; is legitimate mathematics; is the foundation upon which school mathematics expanded; but is too elementary, basic, and routine to be regarded as serious mathematics. Such beliefs, of course, need to be interpreted within the context of the stude...
TL;DR: This paper explored the processes rather than the products of anthropological research and demonstrates how the research process is largely a reflection of the researcher's theoretical/conceptual framework, and analyzed anthropological studies of classrooms using this epistemological framework.
Abstract: This paper explores the processes rather than the products of anthropological research and demonstrates how the research process is largely a reflection of the researcher's theoretical/conceptual framework. The research process is viewed through Gowin's (Novak & Gowin, 1984) heuristic “Vee” that divides the methodological aspect of the research process into seven parts: focus questions, events, records of events, transformations, validation, knowledge claims, and value claims. Anthropological studies of classrooms are analyzed using this epistemological framework. The options researchers have at each step of the research process, the decisions selected researchers have made, the theoretical/conceptual framework upon which these decisions are based, and the implications of such decisions are discussed.
TL;DR: In this paper, a study of a developmental kindergarten, the authors explored the impact of dual classroom agenda and the impact on teacher and student behavior on at-risk children with special needs.
Abstract: The classroom is both a social occasion and a learning place In this study of a developmental kindergarten, this dual classroom agenda and the impact on teacher and student behavior is explored Among the at‐risk children in this study, these two classroom purposes did not peacefully coexist Social‐participation goals took precedence for the children The teacher, frustrated in her need to “get through the lesson,” interfered with group formation, causing students to work even harder at social connections The implications of the recognition of these two agendas for young children with special needs are discussed
TL;DR: In this article, an adaptation of the constant comparative method of qualitative data analysis (Glaser & Strauss, 1967; Strauss, 1987) is illustrated using data from a study of three preservice secondary mathematics teachers.
Abstract: An adaptation of the constant comparative method of qualitative data analysis (Glaser & Strauss, 1967; Strauss, 1987) is illustrated using data from a study of three preservice secondary mathematics teachers. Data were collected using interviews, observations, and written artifacts. Data analysis stages included one in which research participants assisted in the coding process by categorizing statements they had made in previous interviews. This involvement simplified the data analysis process, motivated ongoing analysis during data collection, and helped in identifying accurate and meaningful information about the preservice teachers’ beliefs. Findings illustrate how these benefits were achieved as well as how theory emerged from data during analysis.