Overall Strategy and Rationale
In making the decision to which of the three main design strategies in qualitative research would best fit my particular study (Marshall & Rossman, 1999), I have concluded that I would focus on the genre of society, culture and the tradition of ethnography as defined by Creswell as "a description and interpretation of a cultural or social group or system" (Creswell, 1998, p. 58). I examined two groups' observable and learned behaviors (Harris, 1968 as cited in Creswell, 1998). The groups that were studied were students at an area high school and several families in their home settings. I based my approach along the lines outlined in Creswell (1998), where he cites the sociological approach of Hammersley and Atkinson (1995) and the educational anthropology of Wolcott (1994b) and Fetterman (1989). The approach being that one studies people in interactions in ordinary settings, discerning pervasive patterns of daily living, including behavior, language and what they make and do. Information was gathered through surveys, interviews and observations. A brief outline is presented below and a more detailed description of these approaches to information gathering will be given further on in this chapter.
Survey:
2-part Online Survey:
-Survey 1: 18 questions
-Survey 2: 30 questions
Information obtained from the online surveys was used to develop questions for subsequent interviews and observations.
Interviews:
1. Frank: 35 years old; married with 2 children, a boy 6 years old and a girl, 9 years old; employed as a high-school English teacher.
2. Tina: 25 years old; single; attends college part-time; lives alone; works full-time.
3. Joe: 18 years old; single; high school student; works part time at mall
4. Ann: 28 years old; single; high school social studies teacher
5. Tricia: 19 years old; single; college student; works part time at McDonalds
6. Ed: 45 years old; married; 3 children, all teens; professional
7. Marie: 67 years old; married; grandmother, retired secretary
Observations:
- Area high school
- Peoples' homes