Critical Ethnography in Educational Research: A Theoretical and Practical Guide (Critical Social Thought)

Rating:
Summary: Critical Ethnography: An Exemplar in Theory and Practice
Review: This text in critical qualitative methodology is so clearly written and usefully crafted that it stands as an exemplar in its capacity to deliver both theory and practice related to conducting critical qualitative research. Carspecken delivers extremely practical and clear suggestions for conducting research, while including the reader in the theoretical dialogue entailed in the pratice of critical ethnography. I appreciated the way Carspecken did not foster any division between the practice of critical research and the theory of critical research.

The five stages outlined in his approach represent substantive features of conducting the research, not a five-stage recipe. These five stages are linked by a tightly knit theory of meaning. Each stage, then, has a substantive connection not only to the purposes of critical research, but to the epistemology of critical research. His personalistic style and wonderful examples make the theory and practice highly accessible.

There are too many novelties to this text to list them all, but one of the most important ones is the extent to which Carspecken contributes to critical method through the integration of important postmodern insights.

For anyone interested in qualitative research in general, and critical ethnography in particular, this book is a must.