Showing papers in "Qualitative Inquiry in 1997"
TL;DR: The authors argue that the constructivist position fails to account for experiential know-how, in particular arguing that constructivist positions do not account for the knowledge of the subject and the environment.
Abstract: This article starts with a critique of Guba and Lincoln's outline of competing paradigms for research, in particular arguing that the constructivist position fails to account for experiential knowi...
1,210 citations
TL;DR: Milan Kundera's novel Immortality bears a close relation to contemporary social science debates about the production of the self as discussed by the authors, and some of these debates are related to ours.
Abstract: Milan Kundera's novel Immortality bears a close relation to contemporary social science debates about the production of the self. Commentators like Kleinman and Mishler seem to have introduced a ne...
811 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, an experimental form of writing that I'm terming poetic transcription was explored. And they presented six poetic transcriptions of Dona Juana, an elderly Puerto Rican researcher and educator; describe my poetic transcription process; and examine issues that experimental writing raises for research re-presentation.
Abstract: This article explores an experimental form of writing that I'm terming poetic transcription. Inspired by Laurel Richardson (1992, 1994a, 1994b), I define poetic transcription as the creation of poemlike compositions from the words of interviewees. In this article, I present six poetic transcriptions of Dona Juana, an elderly Puerto Rican researcher and educator; describe my poetic transcription process; and examine issues that experimental writing—specifically, poetic transcription—raises for research re-presentation.
452 citations
TL;DR: This article used personal narratives to show how storytelling works to build a continuous life of experience, linking the past to the future from the standpoint of the present; to matize the process of assigning meanings to memories via language; to draw attention to the significance of institutional depression m universities; and to blur the line between theory and story.
Abstract: When I learned that my father had died while I was attending a national communication conference, two worlds within me—the academic and the personal—collided, and I was forced to confront the large gulf that divided them. In this article, I weave the story of that experience into the wider fabric of disconnections that promotes isolation and inhibits risk taking and change within universities and academic disciplines. In the process, I question whether the structures of power constitutive of academic socialization are not as difficult to resist as those of one's family, and the consequences as constraining. I use personal narrative to show how storytelling works to build a continuous life of experience, linking the past to the future from the standpoint of the present; to proble matize the process of assigning meanings to memories via language; to draw attention to the significance of institutional depression m universities; and to blur the line between theory and story.
320 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors describe principles concerning authenticity in constructivist inquiry in the context of the emergent paradigm and suggest suggestions from which the researcher can choose to work toward, though never prescriptively guarantee, high-quality research findings.
Abstract: Principles concerning authenticity in constructivist inquiry are described in the context of the emergent paradigm. Suggestions are offered from which the researcher can choose to work toward, though never prescriptively guarantee, high-quality research findings.
288 citations
TL;DR: The authors argued that the fear-risk paradox can be resolved theoretically by placing an anxious, defended subject rather than a rational, risk-avoiding one at the center of the debate, and explored some of the methodological implications of so doing, especially the importance of eliciting narratives.
Abstract: A central feature of the fear of crime debate is the fear-risk paradox: the finding that those least at risk, namely, elderly women, are most fearful, and vice versa. This article argues that this paradox can be resolved theoretically by placing an anxious, defended subject rather than a rational, risk-avoiding one at the center of the debate, and explores some of the methodological implications of so doing, especially the importance of eliciting narratives. This methodological position, appropriately adapted for this study's rather different purposes, derives from the biographical-interpretive method first developed in Germany for the collection of life stories of Jewish survivors of the concentration camps. The authors outline the principles of this approach and the importance of eliciting concrete stories in a nondirective way in pursuit of the respondent's "gestalt," and then put this to work in attempting to operationalize their theoretical position into appropriate interview schedules. Specifically,...
179 citations
TL;DR: The past 25 years have seen an unprecedented growth in the use of nontraditional research methods in the social sciences as mentioned in this paper, motivated by the desire to secure more authentic information about the people and situations studied and by the realization that conventional forms of research often constrain the data in ways that misrepresent the phenomena the researcher wishes to understand.
Abstract: The past 25 years have seen an unprecedented growth in the use of nontraditional research methods in the social sciences. Interest in new approaches to research are, in part, motivated by the desire to secure more authentic information about the people and situations studied and by the realization that conventional forms of research often constrain the data in ways that misrepresent the phenomena the researcher wishes to understand. As a result of these beliefs and interests, new forms of data representation that elude conventional forms are being employed. These new forms have their promise as well as their perils. This article discusses the context in which these new forms of research have emerged and the promise and the perils they present.
160 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the author illustrates how she used Deleuze's ethical principles as well as Guattari's figurations of the rhizome, the fold, the nomad, and haecceity to address both of these issues in her study of the construction of subjectivity of a group of older, White southern women in her hometown.
Abstract: The sixth moment of qualitative inquiry demands that researchers rethink traditional definitions of ethical research practices. In addition, the crisis of representation demands that researchers rethink the function of writing in qualitative research. In this article, the author illustrates how she used Deleuze's ethical principles as well as Deleuze and Guattari's figurations of the rhizome, the fold, the nomad, and haecceity to address both of these issues in her study of the construction of subjectivity of a group of older, White southern women in her hometown. Mapping how her understanding of subjectivity has shifted as she has employed these figurations in her writing, she suggests that texts can be the site of ethical work as researchers use writing to help them think differently—an ethical practice of postfoundational inquiry—about both the topic of their studies and the methodology.
156 citations
TL;DR: Fields of Play: Constructing an Academic Life as discussed by the authors ) is a book that enfolds traditional and experimental papers within "writ ing-stories" about the con-ture of academic life.
Abstract: In this article, the author discusses the pleated text Fields of Play: Constructing an Academic Life, a book that enfolds traditional and experimental papers within "writ ing-stories" about the con...
153 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors call attention to the basics m ethnographic fieldwork and point out how they fit together to form the ethnographic method in sociology, and various requirements that must be met to achieve reliability and validity of fieldwork data are discussed.
Abstract: This article calls attention to the basics m ethnographic fieldwork and points out how they fit together to form the ethnographic method in sociology. The various requirements that must be met to achieve reliability and validity of fieldwork data are discussed. They include adequate and appropriate sampling procedures, systematic techniques for gathering and analyzing data, validation of data, avoidance of observer bias, and documentation of findings. The article shows the novice and reminds the experienced field-worker that the ethnographic method is a singularly dynamic and fruitful way of studying the human scene, offering, as it does, unique investigative, substantive, and theoretical contributions to social research.
128 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that postmodernity does not mark the death of traditional forms of theory in ethnographic work, but it does not necessarily mark the end of theorizing activity in ethnography.
Abstract: Does the postmodern climate mark the certain death of theory in ethnographic work? In this article, the author argues that postmodernity does mark the death of traditional forms of theory but it need not mark the end of theorizing activity in ethnography What is required to keep theory in play is a rearticulation of what theory is in the postmodern view To this end, the author examines how theory has been treated in the interpretive tradition and then discusses what theory is or can be in postmodern ethnography Specifically, the author focuses on the relationship between theory and the theory teller, the characteristics of postmodern ethnographic theory, and the textual form of ethnographic theory Throughout this discussion, the self is problematized in the theory endeavor
TL;DR: In this paper, the author's journey of writing short stories is described, and the author argues that there are few exemplars in educational research of such work, and she concludes by raising questions about how short stories will be evaluated by qualitative methodologists and other researchers.
Abstract: This article chronicles the author's journey of writing short stories. Following an opening story, the author explains how she wrote short stories and field notes during her study of Head Start policy Initially, the stories captured the author's emotive and physical memories of mundane and extraordinary events. Later, with the help of Norman Denzin, the stories became part of a research text. Acknowledging that researchers are encouraged to write experimental texts, the author argues that there are few exemplars in educational research of such work. The author then describes and shows how she combined short stories with connecting text. The connecting text provides historical and cultural background on policies depicted in the story. The article concludes by raising questions about how short stories will be evaluated by qualitative methodologists and other researchers.
TL;DR: The authors explored the influence of a teacher on the long-range influences of a student on her life through a biographical account of the teacher's impact on the student's life story.
Abstract: A central educational issue is the nature of the long-range influences of a teacher on a student. This article experiments with a narrative approach to exploring that issue. In collaboration with a young woman who is a former student of a high school teacher in North Carolina, the author shaped an (auto)biographical account of the subtle traces of this teacher's impact on her life story. As a literary document, the storied text is designed less to provide conclusions than to elicit important methodological and substantive educational questions.
TL;DR: Using the Schwandt and Halpern model of auditing a constructivist study, the authors describes an audit from the perspectives of both the auditor and the inquirer requesting the audit.
Abstract: Using the Schwandt and Halpern model of auditing a constructivist study, the article describes an audit from the perspectives of both the auditor and the inquirer requesting the audit. Presented are the steps of the audit as enacted, the issues raised during the experience, and recommendations for those seeking and performing audits of construc tivist inquiries.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors provide three readings of the landscape of values: ways of conceiving of the moral life, impediments to public discussion of values, and treatment of values in a specific practice of social inquiry.
Abstract: Current uncertainty in the social sciences surrounding efforts to represent social reality, the cultural authority of social science, and the legitimacy and validity of its knowledge claims, is due, in part, to debate about the moral and political meaning of social inquiry practices. Although this is by no means a new debate, it has been brought to the foreground in recent years through developments in feminist philosophy, critical theory, and practical hermeneutics. To encourage further discussion of the relationship between empirical and normative aspects of inquiry practices, this article provides three readings of the landscape of values: ways of conceiving of the moral life, impediments to public discussion of values in professional practice, and treatment of values in a specific practice of social inquiry.
TL;DR: This article explored the dilemmas that arose in the effort to combine critical ethnography and praxis in a school/university partnership project intending to restructure an urban high school.
Abstract: This article explores the dilemmas that arose in the effort to combine critical ethnography and praxis in a school/university partnership project intending to restructure an urban high school. The tensions and complexities discussed arise from the desire to foster collaboration among participants in a democratic and non-Othering manner, while pursuing a goal of transforming the inequitable structures of schooling m our society. What political and ethical compromises does a critical/activist researcher face when confronted with a lack of consensus among participants? What is the effect of partially transformed structures of schooling within a wider context of a socially unjust society? The author concludes by reflecting on the roles and positionalities she co-constructed with participants during the project, as well as opportunities that emerged for participant consciousness-raising about the systemic inequities of class, race, and gender and their perpetuation in urban schools.
TL;DR: Two approaches to the analysis of textual data are evaluated in this paper, based on a reanalysis of Oakley's (1980) research, and they are found to be unacceptable in the field of empirical sociology.
Abstract: Two approaches to the analysis of textual data—exposition of the meaning of texts and interpretation by the researcher—are evaluated m a reanalysis of Oakley's (1980) research Three assumptions of these approaches are established: (1) that a formulation's meaning can be located in the words of the formulation; (2) that a researcher can read the meaning; (3) that a theory can be used to clarify the meaning All three assumptions are unacceptable in the field of empirical sociology, which regards social meaning not as being situated in the words of a formulation but instead as being realized in responses to, or readings of, previous formulations Instead of exposing or interpreting the respondent's words, readings of formulations make it possible to describe the meaning of what the respondent is saying, first, by regarding the answer as a reading of the interviewer's question, and, second, by seeing it as an internal reading of the respondents' earlier formulations
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TL;DR: The authors used grounded theory to help show patterns m the writers' discourse and in the narratives they constructed, and found that people in the writing group constructed four different kinds of narratives, each with a different healing function.
Abstract: Research conducted with a writing group at an HIV clinic demonstrated how writing was healing. The research used grounded theory to help show patterns m the writers' discourse and in the narratives they constructed. Results showed that people in the writing group constructed four different kinds of narrative, each with a different healing function. These narratives included making sense of life in general, teaching others about AIDS, helping others with AIDS and generating a community of support, and gaining control and empowerment by claiming one's own experience and survival of AIDS. An individual healing occured as the writers wrote and witnessed their stories, whereas a social healing occured through the experience of forming a writing community.
TL;DR: In this paper, a second-grader reading at the pre-primer level resists answering the author's questions about his conceptions of reading until she agrees to spend equal time drawing and looking through Waldo books with him.
Abstract: Joshua, a second grader reading at the preprimer level, resists answering the author's questions about his conceptions of reading until she agrees to spend equal time drawing and looking through Waldo books with him. Surprisingly, it is while "doing Waldos," rather than during classroom observations or in answering her carefully planned interview questions, that Joshua shows the author his developing sense of narrative, his earliest attempts at phonetic decoding, and the importance of minimal-text books like Waldo books as a nonthreatening gateway into literate experience for him and other struggling readers. The author comes to see such shared agenda setting as not just the most ethical way to interview people but also the most effective, because it allows for the serendipity of discovering answers to questions the author had not even thought to ask.
TL;DR: In this article, a study of poverty as it is constructed in the talk of 11 guests who regularly eat at a soup kitchen in upstate New York is presented, with a critical interpretation of how the soup kitchen guests present themselves and the other impoverished guests of the kitchen.
Abstract: This is a study of poverty as it is constructed in the talk of 11 guests who regularly eat at a soup kitchen in upstate New York. Framed within the perspective that talk constitutes identity and action, this study offers a critical interpretation of how the soup kitchen guests present themselves and the other impoverished guests of the kitchen. The essay also evaluates their characterizations in terms of how they may reflect or influence society's views and policies on poverty. The interpretation and evaluation are guided by the concept "relevancy in meaning" as it is being developed in interpretive audience studies.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors used insights gained from reflection on a qualitative research project to raise issues about the introduction of preservice teachers to urban schooling and suggest the need to transform the roles and relationships between students and teachers, particularly with respect to issues of race and class.
Abstract: In this article, the author uses insights gained from reflection on a qualitative research project to raise issues about the introduction of preservice teachers to urban schooling. In particular, she examines her experiences as a White, middle-class researcher as she conducted research with students of color in a poor urban school and community. She documents the ways her roles and relationships inside the research project shifted and how issues of power and control became more apparent as she followed students from school to their workplaces and community settings. She uses this analysis to raise questions about what happens when a predominantly White, female, middle-class group of preservice teachers from the suburbs is introduced to the challenges and rewards of teaching in urban settings. She suggests the need to transform the roles and relationships between students and teachers, particularly with respect to issues of race and class in teaching and research.
TL;DR: This paper conducted a microethnograpic study of literature discussions in an 11th-grade English class and found that students'attitudes toward reading, self-perceptions as readers or nonreaders, and home-work completion rates were all affected by interruptions, prior student and teacher experiences, required textbook use, time constraints due to preparation for the state examination, and setting or context of the discussions.
Abstract: In this microethnograpic study of literature discussions, the author spent 4 weeks in an 11th-grade English class. Data came from classroom observations, audiotaping of discussions, interviews, and written artifacts. Classroom discussions were affected by students'attitudes toward reading, self-perceptions as readers or nonreaders, and home- work completion rates. The quality and quantity of the interactions were also affected by interruptions, prior student and teacher experiences, required textbook use, time con straints due to preparation for the state examination, and setting or context of the discussions. The perception versus practice disjuncture applied both to teacher and students; the schedule left little reflection time. Curriculum changes were planned for the following school year; one goal is increasing student engagement in class discussions. In consonance with the context of the author's inquiry (literature class), she used poetry to represent these results. This article focuses on content a...
TL;DR: The authors discusses an account of an epiphany or a process of boundary-breaking enlightenment in his research on a Green Tortoise adventure travel tour, the manner in which a form of transcendence "after truth" can exist in qualitative inquiry via the medium of metaphor.
Abstract: In this article, the author discusses an account of an epiphany or a process of boundary-breaking enlightenment in his research on a Green Tortoise adventure travel tour—the manner in which a form of transcendence "after truth" can exist in qualitative inquiry via the medium of metaphor. Despite the pessimism that can result from an engagement with the "Too Big," the author argues that there is sufficient cause for critical postmodernists to remain optimistic in their efforts to develop a coherent, value-oriented, transformational model of social inquiry.
TL;DR: The authors argue that the linguistic turn raises important issues, but many of its practitioners hypostatize discourse and create an alternative essentialism, and they use as an exemplar the recent work of historian Patrick Joyce.
Abstract: Over the past several decades the social sciences have experienced an expansion of historical research. Much of this historical work is linked to the new social history that has significant materialist roots in cultural Marxism and the Annales school. In the past several years this epistemology has been challenged by members of the linguistic turn who draw on poststructuralism and deconstructionism. They seek to debunk what they see as the metanarratives of this materialist ontology, and produced an alternative historiography center on the analysis of discourse. The author argues that the linguistic turn raises important issues, but many of its practitioners hypostatize discourse and create an alternative essentialism. To explicate these problems the study uses as an exemplar the recent work of historian Patrick Joyce. The author alternatively proposes a discourse analysis drawing on Bakhtinian literary theory, which focuses on the social construction of meaning through language. This alternative recogniz...
TL;DR: The Ethnographic Method in Sociology as mentioned in this paper is a classic piece written by a classically trained sociologist who has remained faithful to using the ethnographic method he was taught during his training at Chicago in the 1940s and 1950s.
Abstract: Eastern Montana. Over the many years, he has remained faithful to using the ethnographic method he was taught during his training at Chicago in the 1940s and 1950s. &dquo;The Ethnographic Method in Sociology&dquo; is written from a well-informed position, from years of real-world use. This is a classic piece written by a classically trained sociologist. Too often today, ethnography is critically attacked by armchair sociologists. Many of these critics themselves have had little firsthand work experi-
TL;DR: The Garden of Delights is an excellent example of the ever-changing nature of textual readings, as well as of Habermas's notion of critical hermeneutics.
Abstract: The author reads Hieronymus Bosch's Garden of Delights as a hermeneutic text. In a dreamlike sequence, the author undertakes a trek through the three panels of the triptych, usually taken to represent Hell, Purgatory, and the Garden of Eden. In each panel, he discusses the enigmatic and highly controversial images of humans, animals, and fruits. The painting has been interpreted in a great variety of very discordant ways. According to the author, therefore the Garden of Delights is an excellent example of the ever-changing nature of textual readings, as well as of Habermas's notion of critical hermeneutics. In addition, because very little is known about Bosch himself, interpretations of the painting inform the readers about authorial influence and textual interpretations.
TL;DR: The authors believe a dialectical evaluation process will generate fuller representations of quality while also treating the evaluand as more than simply a technical object.
Abstract: Current idealized evaluation practices are often modeled on a probative, criteria and standards-based approach endorsed by Michael Scriven. The authors find this logical, rule-governed approach insufficient for most program evaluations. By focusing on more technical aspects of the evaluand and the evaluative process, important and valid evaluand characteristics and stakeholder viewpoints can be lost or marginalized. The authors believe a dialectical evaluation process will generate fuller representations of quality while also treating the evaluand as more than simply a technical object. In this article, the authors summarize the probative evaluation approach, discuss aspects of moral reasoning that may limit this standards-based model, and propose an alternative dialectical persuasion.