Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe an approach to analyzing qualitative data that uses Bakhtin's concepts of dialogue as a framework. Design/methodology/approach: Polyphonic Analysis (PA) is proposed as a critical approach to qualitative data analysis that emphasizes creating virtual dialogues of participants' voices, bringing…

The field of education of deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) students has a paucity of evidence-based practices (EBPs) to guide instruction. The authors discussed how the research methodology of single-case design (SCD) can be used to build EBPs through direct and systematic replication of studies. An overview of SCD research methods is presented,…

In evaluation and applied social research, focus groups may be used to gather different kinds of evidence (e.g., opinion, tacit knowledge). In this article, we argue that making focus group design choices explicitly in relation to the type of evidence required would enhance the empirical value and rigor associated with focus group utilization. We…

Current U.S. legislation calls for students with disabilities to be involved and make progress in general education curriculum. Despite the legislation, students with extensive support needs continue to be segregated from their peers and post-school outcomes remain dismal for this population of students. The purpose of this retrospective study was…

This article examines urban school-university partnership research after No Child Left Behind. Central to the review is an analysis in the trend of research methods utilized across studies. It was found that many studies are single-case studies or anecdotal. There are few quantitative, sustained qualitative, or mixed-methods studies represented in…

Too often, researchers get a bad name for engaging in inquiry that is inaccessible to the practitioner and policy communities who could most benefit from it. Although speaking to others in the scholarly community is important, researchers must also be able to translate their results into more accessible language for multiple audiences. This…

Qualitative methods have become common in statistics education research, but questions linger about their role in scholarship. Currently, influential policy documents lend credence to the notion that qualitative methods are inherently inferior to quantitative ones. In this paper, several of the questions about qualitative research raised in recent…

Focus group interviews and individual interviews were conducted with 47 faculty members and administrators in a rural school district in Western Pennsylvania to determine strategies for consideration when attempting to establish and implement a co-teaching program. Participants were part of a school district in its second year of adopting a…

The author centers on narrative inquiry as a "multilayered and many stranded" form of qualitative research (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000, p. xvii), one that unfurls in the midst of a plethora of social phenomena and other research agendas (Conle, 1999). In the article, the narrative inquiry broadly relates to organized school reform in…

This paper examines the impact of discourses upon teachers who strive to be professionals amidst the US No Child Left Behind era. Using qualitative research methodology and ethnographic techniques, a case study was conducted within the context of a teacher learning community comprised of two female secondary teachers and the researcher. Data were…

Drawing on a study of new forms of educational privatization, this article examines how ideas from institutional theory can be useful in analyzing the complex dynamics behind interim assessment technologies. The study was based on qualitative research methods and included interviews, a small-scale questionnaire, participant observation, and…

This study investigated the inclusion of English language learners (ELLs) in state standards and assessments, as measured by comments made by peer reviewers in the federal evaluation of states' standards and assessments. As required by the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), reauthorized in 2004 as No Child Left Behind (NCLB), states…

This article addresses the "state of qualitative inquiry" in the sense of how that inquiry is being positioned in the current construction of a US national policy agenda for "scientifically based" education research. In the author's view, qualitative inquiry is being drowned out in the national agenda despite its ability to…

Narrative construction is an approach to social research in which data are configured into any of a variety of diachronic, or storied, formats. Having recently gained popularity, this approach is now in danger of marginalization (along with other qualitative and quantitative forms of social research) as a result of politically charged attempts to…

Background/Context: Culturally authoritative texts such as Text Revision of the Diagnostic & Statistical Manual-IV [DSM-IV-TR](American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2004) describe literate impossibility for individuals with disability labels associated with severe developmental disabilities. Our qualitative research challenges the…