Egon Guba, Gentleman and Scholar

Abstract

I came to know and admire Egon Guba when I had the good fortune to work with him over several years at the height of his thinking and scholarship on naturalistic inquiry. The time was the period between the publication of his 1978 UCLA monograph, Toward a Methodology of Naturalistic Inquiry in Educational Evaluation, and the 1985 publication of Naturalistic Inquiry, his and Yvonna Lincoln's definitive text on the method. The occasion was a federal research contract under which in the early 1980s we conducted a national, multisite naturalistic study of the implementation of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act. Given its timing, and beyond its substantive focus, the study became a vehicle for applying and refining the ideas and procedures that came to define naturalistic inquiry in Naturalistic Inquiry. The opportunity to work with Egon in this emergent, problem-solving context was an invaluable experience for me, professionally and personally. There is little that I've done intellectually or academically since then that hasn't been shaped by what I learned from Egon or the problems and disciplinary perspectives he inspired me to pursue. As one might expect, philosophically, he changed my very understanding of inquiry, but he also helped me understand my own field differently. Together, these influences allowed me to construct a far more meaningful and satisfying intellectual life than I could have hoped for. Beyond admiring Egon as a scholar, as a person of great intellect and scope of knowledge, I also admired him as a gentleman, in both senses of the term. I remember thinking at the time that the expression "a gentleman and a scholar" must have been coined with someone like Egon in mind. For me, he was the epitome of the mature scholar, a gentlemanly professor and trusted colleague. I can only aspire to his sterling example, of course, but I know that I am a better professor, colleague, and person for having known and worked with Egon Guba.Tom Skrtic is a professor in the Department of Special Education at the University of Kansas where he works primarily in the area of special education policy and administration. His academic interests include philosophical pragmatism, organization theory, and democratic social and educational reform.