Qualitative Methods:

These students are interested in the use of participant observation, interviewing, and narrative reporting to identify and understand everyday practices in institutional settings, with the overall aim of improvement of practice in those settings. Research focus is primarily on educational settings, formal and informal, i.e. on schools, families, and communities--but also on other fields of social service delivery and public advocacy such as nursing, public health, employment, community organizing, and the creation of new community institutions.

We offer a year long series of introductory courses in qualitative methods, beginning with a fall term course on readings and basic principles, a winter term course in which students undertake a small scale field study, and a spring course in which students analyze the information collected and prepare a written report. Courses are also offered on special topics in qualitative methods, e.g. on video-based approaches to classroom discourse analysis. In addition further coursework with relevance for qualitative research methods is available in the department of education, and the departments of sociology and anthropology at UCLA are especially strong in such course offerings. These complement the courses on qualitative methods that are available through the SRM Division itself. Students whose primary concerns are with qualitative research also enroll in courses on academic writing, evaluation, educational measurement, and quantitative research methods within SRM.

Recent dissertation topics have included investigations of alternative instructional activities in afterschool programs and in a summer program for high school students from migrant families, as well as studies of ethnic identity formation in schools and in families.