The study of the role parents play in the reading development of their children requires a methodology that is unobtrusive, humane, objective, and natural. Ethnography, with its corresponding technique of participant observation, offers these characteristics. The distinctive features of an ethnographic research design include: formulation of the…

Educational practitioners tend to resist or avoid doing educational research primarily for two reasons: their prior experience with statistics, computers, and research design has produced insecurity and anxiety; and, they have acquired a basic misunderstanding of the nature and purpose of research. Good research should be both technically sound…

This paper discusses the utility of an ethnographic method that incorporates various participant observation techniques in providing information about family television viewing. It presents arguments for a naturalistic case study approach focusing on family-media interaction and suggests three methods of data collection: interviews and followups;…