At a time when emphasis is being placed on quality, standards, and accountability, the research world is spending more time assessing the value and impact of library organizations. This paper argues that research in this area requires sociological and psychological research skills. Qualitative data are as important as statistics. Different…

As educational researchers continue to discover and appreciate the merits of a qualitative approach, interest in classroom discourse as a useful interpretive resource for making sense of teaching and learning has grown tremendously, especially the use of transcripts. The principal purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that the primary benefit of…

Australia is a multicultural society and, in recent years, Asian immigration has increased tremendously. In terms of the educational participation of Asian-Australian students, students from non-English-speaking backgrounds are not highly represented in humanities, arts, and education courses. They prefer business, engineering, science, and…

Organizational culture has an incredible function and is an incredible function, as it is both product and process, and effect and cause. Within an investigation of tertiary students' perceptions of the fairness of educational assessment using grounded theory methodology, it became apparent that it was important to consider the influence of course…

Super bookstores have entered into many communities across the United States, and they have caused library professionals to defend and debate the similarities and differences between the bookstores and libraries. Most of the literature on the topic consists of editorial or opinion articles focusing on the differences in services provided by the…

In 1998, the researcher participated in a graduate-level interpretive methods class as a teaching assistant. This paper considers several aspects of the approach used in this class to teach interpretive research methods. These approaches include: (1) the introduction of five different research traditions recognized as qualitative; (2) the…

Few studies exist on the impact of practical participatory evaluation when the evaluator is not only a member of the organization, but also has program knowledge and expertise. This paper addresses this gap in the literature by reporting on a 2.5-year longitudinal single case study of practical participatory evaluation of a national, publicly…

A qualitative study explores culture and learning styles relationships for three Turkish and two U.S. graduate students at a U.S. university. Each participant provided information in a semistructured interview for about 2 hours. All three Turkish students stressed the conservative nature of their culture and its effects on learning. Turkish…

The usefulness of journals as a source of qualitative data in educational research was studied through journals kept by preservice teachers in an adolescent development course with a practicum component. Four journals were analyzed, two from preservice teachers assigned to project-centered classrooms and two from preservice teachers assigned to…

As the demand for online learning increases, teacher preparation programs must offer a variety of courses utilizing E-learning formats. These formats must model effective teaching practices, curriculum design, and adaptations for the online learning environment. In addition, teacher preparation programs--following the Dewey philosophy as well as…

Educational research has changed in the last ten years from "a field that was dominated by measurement, operationalized definitions, variables, hypothesis testing, and statistics" to a research mode that emphasizes "description, induction, grounded theory, and the study of people's understanding. We refer to this approach as…

Interviews with two reference librarians and two users of reference services explored the concept of quality in academic reference services. The study determined that providers and users agreed on the meaning of quality service: librarian knowledge and willingness; mutual expectations, willingness, competence, and satisfaction between librarian…

Inclusion is both a philosophy based on social justice and a practice requiring significant adaptations by the school community. This article presents qualitative data on over 200 Queensland (Australia) principals toward inclusion. Responses suggest the majority are "qualified" inclusionists. Although mindful of social-justice…

Dabrowski's theory that sensitivity and intensity are characteristic of the psychological makeup of young gifted children was investigated in a qualitative study with five gifted children (ages 4 through 6). The study found the five overexcitabilities postulated by Dabrowski were manifested in the children's classroom and home behaviors. (DB)

Describes how authentic assessment instruments and qualitative methods in foundations of education courses helped preservice teachers understand the relationship between theory and practice. Reports students' positive experiences of real-world situations, collaboration, and retention of knowledge. (SK)