Here, Wolcott presents the full story of his intimate and tumultuous relationship with the young man who was the subject of his long-term study on how the educational system can fail students-The Brad Trilogy--and the firestorm it caused. Written in Wolcott's masterful style, the case offers an ideal starting point for discussing the complex public and personal dimensions of qualitative research with students. Visit our website for sample chapters!

Using lively examples and friendly tips gleaned from his own and other researchers' experiences, and a warm, reflective writing style, Harry F Wolcott offers readers suggestions for writing up qualitative research.

Publisher's description: After the glamour of working in the field is over, you now face the daunting challenge of transforming your field notes and interview tapes into a completed study. But where do you start? In Transforming Qualitative Data, Harry F. Wolcott guides you through the process of completing your research study. Beginning with an introductory chapter that presents his views on ethnography, he explores the transformation process by breaking it down into three related activities: description, analysis, and interpretation. To illustrate each point, he critically examines his own work, using nine of his previous studies as illustrations. Then he shows you how to learn--and to teach--qualitative research by applying the three principles outlined in the volume. Written with the usual wit and brilliance shown in Wolcott's work, Transforming Qualitative Data is a major statement on doing research by one of the master ethnographers of our time.

Harry Wolcott discusses the fundamental nature of ethnographic studies, offering important suggestions on improving and deepening research practices for both novice and expert researchers.

In this long-anticipated second edition of The Art of Fieldwork, prominent anthropologist Harry F. Wolcott updates his original groundbreaking text, which both challenges and petitions anthropology and its practitioners to draw not only on the traditional precepts of science, but also on the richness of artistry in the collection, interpretation, and expression of fieldwork data. Each of the original chapters have been thoughtfully revised to reflect the past nine years of anthropological development. Combined with a new final chapter, this refreshing text makes an exciting reentry into the ongoing debate of the processes, challenges, and rewards of fieldwork methodology. Researchers in qualitative methods and field methods--and fieldworkers across disciplines--will find this well-crafted, approachable book a thought-provoking read.

Harry Wolcott's ground-breaking anthropological study into the life of an elementary school principal is now reprinted in a new edition. One of the first studies of its kind, Wolcott uses an mircoenthnographic approach to analyze a single occupation within urban American society. Originally written in 1973, the text skillfully applies anthropological concepts and methodology to the realm of education. This new edition features an updated preface written by the author.

In a number of academic disciplines, auto/biography and auto/ethnography have become central means of critiquing of the ways in which research represents individuals and their cultures. Auto/biography and auto/ethnography are genres that blend ethnographic interests with life writing and they tell about a culture at the same time they tell about an individual life. This book presents educational researchers, in exemplary form, the possibilities and constraints of both auto/biography and auto/ethnography as methods of doing educational research. The contributors to this volume explore, by means of examples, auto/biography and auto/ethnography as means for critical analysis and as tool kit for the different stakeholders in education. The four thematic sections deal with: a. different possible uses and constraints of the two methods b. understanding teaching and teaching to learn c. institutional critiques d. experiences and trajectories as evidence of a sociology of everyday life. The book was written to be used by upper undergraduate and graduate students taking courses in research design; because of its practical approach, it is highly suitable for those contexts where research methods courses do not exist. The audience also includes professors, who want to have a reference on design and methodology, and those who have not yet had the opportunity to employ a particular method.