I took EDU 603 with Dr. Bogdan in the Fall of 2002. The major project associated with this course involved carrying out a qualitative study. I chose to engage in participation observations in a local middle school. More specifically, I observed a vice-principal doling out discipline to students who were referred to him by teachers. Along with the observations was a semi-structured interview I did with the vice-principal when I completed the observations.
Though certainly not having a set agenda when begginning this study, I was interested in who was referred, why they were referred and most importantly,if there were any common themes among those referred. The most salient theme that emerged was that related to family upheaval and correspondingly, the school's role in accomodating the upheaval (reviewing the coding scheme first may be beneficial). Below are files related to the study. Also, note the feedback from Dr. Bogdan below.
FEEDBACK FROM DR. BOGDAN
"I'm very impressed with your coding system. It is very thorough and extensive. That thoroughness is also translated into the way you told the story in your final paper. This is a quality work that shows the thoughts and efforts you have put into its making. I have a few comments with regard to the fundamental framework of this research, though.
Let me start with the title, A Reversal of Roles. For one, your discussion is one-way, i.e., how schools take up the roles that were traditionally designated to the family, not the other way around. So the reversal doesn't really hold.
A the end of your paper, you acknowledge that this research didn't have enough data to prove that families are the cause of the alienation and discontent of these children sent to the VP office. I want to remind you that qualitative research is not good at (and is not aimed at) identifying causal relationships among "variables." So even with interviews with family members and observations, I would caution you not to fall into the pursuit of causes and effects, but explore how children and parents experience what they are going through.
Qualitative researchers do not see themselves as collecting the "fact" of human behavior, which when accumulated will provide verification on a hypothesis. So I would remind you not to interpret what you observed of the interaction between the VP and his daughter, and the pictures he displayed in his office as "factual evidence" to prove that he has a "stable" family, a family of which children won't end up in the VP's office. What you as a qualitative researcher could do is to interrogate the notion of "good, all-American family" and you do have the data from the research so far to explore how the VP was constructing a public representation/image of a "good" family. And you also could investigate how the way he cued you into the worlds of these "troubled" teens was shaped by the perspective on "family values." I think at times you were conscious of what you were learning about these children's' families (by and large from the VP, but not always so. It is extremely important to examine what assumptions about family, learning. good/bad students/ families that he, you. and other teachers (such as Jack) made and took for granted. Overall, very extensive work."
GRADE = A
