Summary: Ellen and other 4 authors (2005) talked about qualitative studies in special education. According to this article, qualitative study is a systematic approach to understanding qualities, or the essential nature, of a phenomenon with a particular context. This article first discussed the goal of this kind of research in special education, in order to examine personal reaction and teaching strategies. Then, they introduced the types and descriptions of qualitative research (both inductive and deductive). Being  valid instruments and data collection are quite important for qualitative research, since the settings and people are dynamic and diverse. The article also provided some prominent studies which make contribution to special education and some techniques which could make the research more credible.  In addition, quality indicators are essential to help people plan the qualitative research. Finally, three recent cases of qualitative studies in special education proved that this kind of research could be used to inform policy and practice. 
Something stopped me:

The two figures in this article made me spend time to read it carefully. The first figure is about the types and descriptions of qualitative research. I could new different genres of qualitative research and it also provide me a standard that which kind of research could be regarded as qualitative research. The second figure is about credibility measures for qualitative research, and it offers several methods in order to enhance the credibility of qualitative study, and I think in other kinds of research, these methods could also make sense. However, because of the uniqueness of qualitative research, some studies could not match these credibility measures, so these methods is not compulsory for qualitative researchers.

Comments

  1. Kieran5 February 2018 at 13:31

    Hey Crystal,
    Thank you for the clear summary; there was certainly a lot of information and ideas in the article! I also think that the figures were really useful; especially the one explaining the different types and descriptions of qualitative research. As you say, the paper is helpful in explaining what qualitative research is and how it is useful for researchers to focus on particular individuals. It also ties together some of what we discussed in class before; “by focusing on the participants’ personal meanings, qualitative research “gives voice” to people who have been historically silenced or marginalized” 199. I find this quality of qualitative research very interesting in that it can “give voice” to those who have been ignored. In research, by looking at the “big picture” and developing theories, we run the risk of not taking our individuality into account – I prefer this approach of looking at things on a smaller scale and piecing evidence together rather than trying to create a generalizable theory.

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  2. Haynam5 February 2018 at 15:24

    Thanks for your summary Crystal!

    Last week I read an article about qualitative studies as well. The article provides a different taxonomy. It is obvious that this study method is very important for educational research. Besides, I wonder what are credibility measures for qualitative research introduced in the article because that would be a set of very useful tools for us to be critical when reading.

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