There has been a growing interest in the potential contributions qualitative research could make to “scientific”/scholarly inquiry in special education (Edgerton, 1984; Stainback & Stainback, 1984; Taylor & Bogdan, 1984). The purpose of this paper is to provide an impetus for more widespread familiarity with and use of qualitative research methodology among educators concerned with the education of persons with severe handicaps by drawing together and attempting to clarify the present state of the art in qualitative research methodology.
BogdanR.BiklenS. (1982). Qualitative research for education: An introduction to theory and methods. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
7.
BogdanR.TaylorS. (1976). The judged, not the judges: An insider's view of mental retardation. American Psychologist, 31, 47–52.
8.
BogdanR.TaylorS. (1982). Inside/out: The social meaning of mental retardation. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
9.
BruynS. (1966). The human perspective in sociology: The methodology of participant observation. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
10.
CampbellD. (1979). “Degree of freedom” and the case study. In CookT.ReichardtC. (Eds.), Qualitative and quantitative methods in evaluation research (pp. 49–66). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
11.
CarrollT. (1977). Work and play: A probe of the formation, use, and intersection of adult and child activity domains (Doctoral dissertation, SUNY, Buffalo, 1976). Dissertation Abstracts International, 38, 5211A–5212A. (University Microfilms No. 77–3520).
12.
DenzinN. (1978). The research act: A theoretical introduction to sociological methods (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
13.
EdgertonR. (1967). The cloak of competence: Stigma in the lives of the mentally retarded. Berkeley: University of California Press.
14.
EdgertonR. (1984). The participant-observer approach to research in mental retardation. American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 88, 498–505.
15.
EdgertonR.BercoviciS. (1976). The cloak of competence: Years later. American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 80, 485–497.
16.
EdgertonR.BollingerM.HerrB. (1984). The cloak of competence: After two decades. American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 88, 345–351.
17.
EdgertonR.EdgertonC. (1973). Becoming mentally retarded in a Hawaiian school. In TarjanG.EymanR.MeyersC. (Eds.), Sociobehavioral studies in mental retardation (pp. 211–233). Washington: American Association on Mental Deficiency.
18.
FettermanD. (1982). Ethnography in educational research: The dynamics of diffusion. Educational Researcher, 11, 17–22.
19.
FilsteadW. (1979). Qualitative methods: A needed perspective in evaluation research. In CookT.ReichardtC. (Eds.), Qualitative and quantitative methods in evaluation research (pp. 33–48). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
20.
GlaserB. (1978). Theoretical sensitivity: Advances in the methodology of grounded theory. Mill Valley, CA: Sociology Press.
21.
GlaserB.StraussA. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory. Chicago: Aldine.
22.
GoetzJ.LeCompteM. (1982). Ethnographic research and the problem of data reduction. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 12, 51–70.
23.
GubaE.LincolnY. (1981). Effective evaluation. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
24.
HenryJ. (1960). A cross-cultural outline of education. Current Anthropology, 1, 267–305.
25.
HeshusiusL. (1981). Meaning in life as experienced by persons labeled retarded in a group home. Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas.
26.
HomansG. (1962). Sentiments and activities: Essays in social science. New York: Free Press of Glencoe.
27.
LeCompteM.GoetzJ. (1982). Problems of reliability and validity in ethnographic research. Review of Educational Research, 52, 31–60.
28.
LoflandJ. (1971). Analyzing social settings: A guide to qualitative observation and analysis. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
29.
MagoonA. (1977). Constructivist approaches in educational research. Review of Educational Research, 47, 651–693.
30.
PattonM. (1980). Qualitative evaluation methods. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
31.
PeltoP.PeltoG. (1978). Anthropological research: The structure of inquiry (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
32.
PeshkinA. (1978). Growing up American: Schooling and the survival of community. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
33.
SchwartzH.JacobsJ. (1979). Qualitative sociology: A method to the madness. New York: The Free Press.
34.
ScrivenM. (1974). Evaluation perspectives and procedures. In PophamJ. (Ed.), Evaluation in education: Current applications (pp. 1–94). Berkeley, CA: McCutchan.
35.
SmithL.GeoffreyW. (1968). The complexities of an urban classroom: An analysis toward a general theory of teaching. New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston.
36.
SpindlerG. (1973). Schooling the young people. In SpindlerG. (Ed.), Burgbach: Urbanization and identity in a German village. New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston.
37.
StainbackS.StainbackW. (1984). Broadening the research perspective in special education. Exceptional Children, 50, 400–409.
38.
StainbackS.StainbackW. (in press). Qualitative and quantitative research: Complementary or competitive?Exceptional Children.
39.
TaylorS. (1982). From segregation to integration: Strategies for integrating severely handicapped students in normal school and community settings. Journal of the Association for the Severely Handicapped, 7(3), 42–49.
40.
TaylorS.BogdanR. (1981). A qualitative approach to the study of community adjustment. In BruininksR.MeyersC.SigfordB.LakinK. C. (Eds.), Deinstitutionalization and community adjustment of mentally retarded people (pp. 71–81). Washington, DC: American Association on Mental Deficiency.
41.
TaylorS.BogdanR. (1984). Introduction to qualitative research methods: The search for meanings. New York: John Wiley.
42.
TymitzB.WolfR. (1977). An introduction to judicial evaluation and natural inquiry. Washington, DC: Nero and Associates.
