Four researchers argue the merits of qualitative methodology and its particular relevance to those in special education who seek to move beyond a deficit perspective. Their studies examine the experiences of a young deaf child in a hearing family, Portuguese-speaking parents of special needs students with severe disabilities, a class in basic reading-writing in an urban university, and fifth- and sixth-grade students in a literature discussion group. Unconstrained by the defined variables and decontextualized settings characteristic of much research in special education, qualitative methods allowed the authors to extend the scope of their studies beyond originally stated research questions when unanticipated findings emerged from descriptive data. In doing so, each researcher discovered unexpected strengths and abilities in her participants.
The topic of effective teachers is of significance to the field of teacher education as well as to the entire education community. While an abundance of research on this subject identifies findings from adult viewpoints, this qualitative study uses ethnographic interviews with fifth grade students to examine the characteristics of effective teachers from the perspectives of children, the consumers in education. Categories of characteristics and themes found in the descriptive data of transcripts reveal the way children define effective teachers and identifY their skills, knowledge, and dispositions. Implications for the goals and content of teacher education programs are discussed. Based on findings from this study, the author argues in support of including the voices of children in the research arena. The article concludes that in an age of technology, elementary school students retain a humanistic vision of teaching and learning
In the past, much research on deaf children's language development has been conducted in schools and clinical settings to examine children's achievement of standard English or to study the effectiveness of mode of communication. The purpose of this study was to examine a deaf child's pragmatic development, her abilities as a language user in the naturally occurring situations of her everyday life at home. Observations, videotaping, and interviews were used to collect descriptive data of the child's conversation experiences with hearing family members. Findings reveal that deafness has had an impact on the family's beliefs and communication practices. Data show the child to be a competent communicator as she uses language appropriately for a variety of purposes, demonstrates her knowledge of the structural features of conversation, and employs an array of communication strategies to achieve mutual understanding with family members.
A case study of a young deaf child's conversation development is used to explore the relationship between mode of inquiry and findings resulting from the use of qualitative research methodology. Data were collected through participant observation, videotaping, and interviews in the participants' natural settings. The breadth of findings from thematic analysis of descriptive data and discourse analysis of language samples led to the discovery of the child's language competencies in a field where research usually focuses on language deficits. Additionally, data revealed the contextual features that contributed to the child's conversation development. Scope of findings and implications for educators and researchers provide evidence of the value of qualitative methodology as a mode of inquiry in the field of education of the Deaf.
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