[quoting Rieber, 21 Mar 97] I've tried to keep this note brief, so pardon my oversimplifications. Don't interpret my words as suggesting that methods and results don't matter and don't see them as an excuse to do sloppy research. All I want to suggest is that we shift the emphasis back to where it truly belongs--on asking good questions.
[quoting Wager, 21 Mar 97.a] Maybe it is because the discussion of one type of research versus another type of research is old and tired. As Rieber notes, it is mostly about asking good questions. It is also about being able to mount a research project that has a chance of producing results that are generalizable beyond the logistically convenient sample population. I am especially weary of dissertation "case" studies.
I would very much like to see some examples of "good questions" from Lloyd and Walt, and the methodologies they would recommend to address them. Ian has suggested some from his work, and I have described others in a paper titled: Questioning the Questions of Instructional Technology Research which can be found at http://intro.base.org. I completely agree with Lloyd and Walt that the research question is what should drive the methodology, but I do not have the benefit of their perspectives on what types of questions or problems we should be addressing in this field. The tone of their responses suggests that they think some of us are asking "better" questions than others, and so I respectfully ask for direction.
Also, Walt made the comment: "I am especially weary of dissertation "case" studies." I think that what Walt means by this is that he is weary of poor qualitative studies that are long on biased description and short on rigorous analysis, and that Walt is not actually condemning case studies per se. Anyone serious about educational research disdains poor studies of any kind, but poor "case studies" do seem to be getting through the dissertation process more often in recent years. I suspect this is partly because there are so few good qualitative methodologists and that the rest of us on dissertation committees may be bluffed into accepting poor qualitative studies by politics or other matters. It is also problematic that some of the people teaching qualitative methods cultivate an aura of mystery about their methods which can be intimidating for faculty who were not introduced to these methods in their own graduate programs.
By the way, we do have some excellent qualitative methodologists here at UGA (e.g., Sharan Merriam, 1988). We also host an annual conference focused on "Qualitative Research in Education," and my colleague, Julie Tallman, is chairing the 1998 conference. For more information, you can contact Julie at: jtallman@coe.uga.edu.
Merriam, S.B. (1988). Case study research in education: A qualitative approach. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.