[NLA] research: long and technical

[AWilder106@aol.com]

Eileen,

For heaven's sake, before you trash what I say and toss it in the positivist 
dustbin, please read my latest email.  I describe there "valid and reliable" 
research!  Your criteria match, as far as I can tell, the procedures followed 
in the two research studies.  "Validity and reliability" has MANY FACES 
depending on the type of research design.  "Thick description" is a phrase 
taken from Christopher Geertz.  His "The Balinese Cockfight" is often cited 
as a model for thick description.  You might look at Purcell-Gates "Now We 
Read, We See, We Speak" for a superb example of "thick description," and  an 
example of how validity and reliability are played out in an ethnography of 
adult literacy.  .The book is a virtual roadmap for how to do this type of 
work, not just the research, but the teaching described.

I would be interested to know what studies you are citing as examples of the 
sort of work you admire, that would be very useful for all of us on this 
thread.

Andrea
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