Table Of ContentLANGUAGE AND LITERACY SERIES
Dorothy S. Strickland and Celia Genishi, SERIES EDITORS
ADVISORY BOARD: RICHARD ALLINGTON, DONNA ALVERMANN, KATHRYN AU,
BERNICE CULLINAN, COLETTE DAIUTE, ANNE HAAS DYSON, CAROLE EDELSKY,
JANET EMIG, SHIRLEY BRICE HEATH, CONNIE JUEL, SUSAN LYTLE
On Qualitative Inquiry: Approaches to Language Reading Lives: Working-Class Children and
and Literacy Research (An NCRLL Volume)* Literacy Learning
GEORGE KAMERELIS and GREG DIMITRIADIS DEBORAH HICKS
Teaching English Today: Inquiry Into Meaning: An Investigation of
Advocating Change in the Secondary Curriculum Learning to Read, REVISED EDITION
BARRIE R.C. BARRELL, ROBERTA F. HAMMETT, EDWARD CHITTENDEN and TERRY SALINGER,
JOHN S. MAYHER, and GORDON M. PRADL, Editors with ANNE M. BUSSIS
Bridging the Literacy Achievement Gap, “Why Don’t They Learn English?” Separating
Grades 4–12 Fact from Fallacy in the U.S. Language Debate
DOROTHY S. STRICKLAND and LUCY TSE
DONNA ALVERMANN, Editors
Conversational Borderlands: Language and
Crossing the Digital Divide: Identity in an Alternative Urban High School
Race, Writing, and Technology in the Classroom B
ETSY RYMES
BARBARA MONROE
Inquiry-Based English Instruction
Out of this World: Why Literature Matters to Girls
RICHARD BEACH and JAMIE MYERS
HOLLY VIRGINIA BLACKFORD
The Best for Our Children: Critical Perspectives
Critical Passages: on Literacy for Latino Students
Teaching the Transition to College Composition MARÍA DE LA LUZ RE
YES and
KRISTIN DOMBEK and SCOTT HERNDON JOHN J. HALCÓN, Editors
Making Race Visible: Language Crossings:
Literary Research for Cultural Understanding Negotiating the Self in a Multicultural World
STUART GREENE and KAREN L. OGULNICK, Editor
DAWN ABT-PERKINS, Editors
What Counts as Literacy?
The Child as Critic: Developing Literacy through Challenging the School Standard
Literature, K–8, FOURTH EDITION MARGARET GALLEGO
and
GLENNA SLOAN SANDRA HOLLINGSWORTH, Editors
Room for Talk: Teaching and Learning in a Critical Encounters in High School English:
Multilingual Kindergarten Teaching Literary Theory to Adolescents
REBEKAH FASSLER DEBORAH APPLEMAN
Give Them Poetry! Beginning Reading and Writing
A Guide for Sharing Poetry with Children K–8 DOROTHY S. STRICKLAND and
GLENNA SLOAN LESLEY M. MORROW, Editors
The Brothers and Sisters Learn to Write: Popular Reading for Meaning:
Literacies in Childhood and School Cultures Fostering Comprehension in the Middle Grades
ANNE HAAS DYSON BARBARA M. TAYLOR,
MICHAEL F. GRAVES, and
“Just Playing the Part”: Engaging Adolescents in
PAUL VAN DEN BROEK, Editors
Drama and Literacy
Writing in the Real World
CHRISTOPHER WORTHMAN
ANNE BEAUFORT
The Testing Trap:
Young Adult Literature and the
How State Writing Assessments Control Learning
New Literary Theories
GEORGE HILLOCKS, JR.
ANNA O. SOTER
The Administration and Supervision of Reading
Literacy Matters:
Programs, THIRD EDITION
Writing and Reading the Social Self
SHELLEY B. WEPNER,
ROBERT P. YAGELSKI
DOROTHY S. STRICKLAND, and JOAN T. FEE-
LEY, Editors Building Family Literacy in an Urban Community
RUTH D. HANDEL
School’s Out! Bridging Out-of-School Literacies
with Classroom Practice Children’s Inquiry:
GLYNDA HULL and Using Language to Make Sense of the World
KATHERINE SCHULTZ, Editors JUDITH WELLS LINDFORS
* Volumes with an asterisk following the title are a part of the NCRLL set: Approaches to Language and Literacy
Research, edited by JoBeth Allen and Donna Alvermann.
(Continued)
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LANGUAGE AND LITERACY SERIES (continued)
So Much to Say: Adolescents, Bilingualism, and Envisioning Literature:
ESL in the Secondary School Literary Understanding and Literature Instruction
CHRISTIAN J. FALTIS and PAULA WOLFE, Editors JUDITH A. LANGER
Close to Home: Oral and Literate Practices in a Teaching Writing as Reflective Practice
Transnational Mexicano Community
GEORGE HILLOCKS, JR.
JUAN C. GUERRA
Talking Their Way into Science
Authorizing Readers: Resistance and Respect in KAREN GALLAS
the Teaching of Literature
Whole Language Across the Curriculum:
PETER J. RABINOWITZ and MICHAEL W. SMITH
Grades 1, 2, 3
On the Brink: SHIRLEY C. RAINES, Editor
Negotiating Literature and Life with Adolescents
No Quick Fix: Rethinking Literacy Programs in
SUSAN HYNDS
America’s Elementary Schools
Life at the Margins: Literacy, Language, and RICHARD L. ALLINGTON and
Technology in Everyday Life SEAN A. WALMSLEY, Editors
JULIET MERRIFIELD, et al.
Nonfiction for the Classroom: Milton Meltzer on
One Child, Many Worlds: Writing, History, and Social Responsibility
Early Learning in Multicultural Communities E. WENDY SAUL, Editor
EVE GREGORY, Editor
When Children Write
Literacy for Life: Adult Learners, New Practices TIMOTHY LENSMIRE
HANNA ARLENE FINGERET and
Dramatizing Literature in Whole Language
CASSANDRA DRENNON
Classrooms, SECOND EDITION
The Book Club Connection JOHN WARREN STEWIG and CAROL BUEGE
SUSAN I. MCMAHON and TAFFY E. RAPHAEL,
The Languages of Learning
Editors, with VIRGINIA J. GOATLEY and
KAREN GALLAS
LAURA S. PARDO
Partners in Learning:
Until We Are Strong Together:
Teachers and Children in Reading Recovery
Women Writers in the Tenderloin
CAROL A. LYONS, GAY SU PINNELL, and
CAROLINE E. HELLER
DIANE E. DEFORD
Restructuring Schools for Linguistic Diversity
Social Worlds of Children Learning to Write in
OFELIA B. MIRAMONTES, ADEL NADEAU, and
an Urban Primary School
NANCY L. COMMINS
ANNE HAAS DYSON
Writing Superheroes: Contemporary Childhood,
The Politics of Workplace Literacy
Popular Culture, and Classroom Literacy
SHERYL GREENWOOD GOWEN
ANNE HAAS DYSON
Inside/Outside: Teacher Research and Knowledge
Opening Dialogue:
MARILYN COCHRAN-SMITH and
Understanding the Dynamics of Language and
SUSAN L. LYTLE
Learning in the English Classroom
Literacy Events in a Community of Young Writers
MARTIN NYSTRAND, et al.
YETTA M. GOODMAN and
Reading Across Cultures
SANDRA WILDE, Editors
THERESA ROGERS and ANNA O. SOTER, Editors
Whole Language Plus: Essays on Literacy in the
“You Gotta Be the Book”: Teaching Engaged and
United States and New Zealand
Reflective Reading with Adolescents
COURTNEY B. CAZDEN
JEFFREY D. WILHELM
Process Reading and Writing:
Just Girls: Hidden Literacies and Life in
A Literature-Based Approach
Junior High
JOAN T. FEELEY,
MARGARET J. FINDERS
DOROTHY S. STRICKLAND, and
The First R: Every Child’s Right to Read
SHELLEY B. WEPNER, Editors
MICHAEL F. GRAVES, PAUL VAN DEN BROEK,
Literacy for a Diverse Society
and BARBARA M. TAYLOR, Editors
ELFRIEDA H. HIEBERT, Editor
Exploring Blue Highways:
Literacy Reform, School Change, and the Learning to Read:
Creation of Learning Communities Beyond Phonics and Whole Language
JOBETH ALLEN, MARILYNN CARY, and G. BRIAN THOMPSON and
LISA DELGADO TOM NICHOLSON, Editors
KambrelisProofs.indd i 9/27/2004 4:54:10 PM
On
Qualitative Inquiry
Approaches to Language and
Literacy Research
(AN NCRLL VOLUME)
George Kamberelis
Greg Dimitriadis
Teachers College, Columbia University National Conference on Research in
New York and London Language and Literacy
KambrelisProofs.indd i 9/27/2004 4:54:10 PM
Published by Teachers College Press, 1234 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY 10027
Published in association with the National Conference on Research in Language and
Literacy (NCRLL). For more about NCRLL, see www.nyu.edu/education/teachlearn/
research/ncrll/
Copyright © 2005 by Teachers College, Columbia University
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, or any informa-
tion storage and retrieval system, without permission from the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kamberelis, George.
On qualitative inquiry / George Kamberelis, Greg Dimitriadis.
p. cm. — (Approaches to language and literacy research)
(Language and literacy series) “An NCRLL volume.”
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8077-4545-6 (cloth : alk. paper). — ISBN 0-8077-4544-8 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Philology—Research. 2. Logic. I. Dimitriadis, Greg, 1969-
II. National Conference on Research in Language and Literacy. III. Title. IV. Series.
V. Language and literacy series (New York, N.Y.)
P51.K26 2005
407.2—dc22 2004058122
ISBN 0-8077-4544-8 (paper)
ISBN 0-8077-4545-6 (cloth)
Printed on acid-free paper
Manufactured in the United States of America
12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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Contents
From the NCRLL Editors vii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: Logic and Structure of the Book 1
Genealogy: Thinking History Differently 3
Rhetorical Orientations and Structure of the Book 10
1. Into the Fray: A Practiced and Practical Set of
Analytic Strata 13
Epistemologies 13
Theories 15
Approaches 17
Strategies 18
Indeterminacy and Positioning in Qualitative Inquiry 20
2. Predominant Chronotopes of Qualitative Inquiry 24
Why Chronotopes? 24
Chronotope I: Objectivism and Representation 29
Chronotope II: Reading and Interpretation 31
Chronotope III: Skepticism, Conscientization, and Praxis 36
Chronotope IV: Power/Knowledge and Defamiliarization 44
Summary and Conclusions 58
3. A Selective History of Inquiry in Anthropology 60
Anthropology in the Twentieth Century: From Sapir to Hymes
to Heath and Beyond 61
Ethnography of Communication: Linguistics in a New Key 63
The Emergence of New Approaches to Research 64
Reimagining the Research(er) as an Agent of Change 67
Ongoing Proliferations of the Ethnography of
Communication Tradition 71
v
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vi Contents
Coda: Inquiry Logics and the Ethnography of
Communication Tradition 74
Responding to the Crisis of Representation:
Writing Culture and Beyond 75
Beyond the Crisis of Representation: Reimagining the
Field and Fieldwork 81
Coda: Inquiry Logics in the Wake of the Crises of
Representation, Evaluation, and Praxis 87
Summary and Conclusions 89
4. A Selective History of Inquiry in Sociology 92
Nineteenth-Century Roots: Émile Durkheim and Max Weber 92
The Chicago School of Sociology 95
Foundationalist/Modernist Strands Within the
Chicago School of Sociology 97
Coda: Inquiry Logics Within Foundational/Modernist Approaches 105
Interpretive Strands of Inquiry Within the Chicago School
of Sociology 105
Coda: Inquiry Logics Within Interpretive Strands of the
Chicago School 111
Marxism and the Emergence of Critical Modes of Inquiry 111
Sociology as Politics: Remaking the “Real” 117
Discourse and the Production of Reality: Michel Foucault and
His Legacy 118
Reality as Articulation: From Gramsci to Deleuze and Guarttari 123
Coda: Inquiry Logics Within Critical Sociological Theory
and Research 130
Summary and Conclusions 132
5. Qualitative Inquiry: A Transdisciplinary Metadiscourse 135
Approaches to Qualitative Inquiry Revisited:
Language and Literacy Exemplars 138
Final Thoughts 155
Notes 159
References 163
Index 174
About the Authors 182
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From the NCRLL Editors
o you wish you could go back to graduate school and take
more research courses? Are you in graduate school and wor-
Dried that you don’t have the tools to become a researcher?
Does your current project cry out for an approach that you aren’t quite
sure how to design? Have you ever wondered how and why people
study conversations in classrooms, or what different approaches there
might be to case study research, or how to employ critical race theory
in designing a study?
If so, you are not alone. A recent survey of the membership of the
National Conference on Research in Language and Literacy (NCRLL)
indicated a strong need for a definitive source of information about
different research approaches in the field. To respond to that need,
NCRLL and Teachers College Press have joined forces to develop and
publish the current collection—Approaches to Language and Litera-
cy Research—with On Qualitative Inquiry as its introductory volume.
Each subsequent book will address a particular research framework,
tradition, or approach used by language and literacy researchers, au-
thored by one or more prominent researchers. Topics and authors ten-
tatively slated for future volumes include Arlette Willis on research
informed by critical theories; Anne Haas Dyson and Celia Genishi
on case studies; David Bloome, Nora Shuart-Faris, Stephanie Carter,
Mary Beth Christian, and Sheila Otto on classroom discourse analysis;
Dixie Goswami, Ceci Lewis, Marty Rutherford, and Diane Waff on
teacher inquiry; Shirley Brice Heath on ethnography; David Schaaf-
sma on narrative inquiry; and David Reinking and Barbara Bradley
on formative experiments.
We believe the books in this collection will be useful to a wide
range of researchers: graduate students, novice researchers, and ex-
perienced researchers who want to learn about an unfamiliar research
tradition or methodology. Each volume will address theoretical as-
vii
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viii From the NCRLL Editors
sumptions and issues within a particular tradition (including differ-
ent interpretations, applications, and methods), research questions
that might be addressed using that approach, design possibilities,
exemplars (with an annotated bibliography of studies), and a refer-
ence list for further reading. We are confident that this collection will
make a major contribution to the field by connecting researchers to
influential works of language and literacy scholars using a variety of
approaches.
The current volume, On Qualitative Inquiry, maps the philosophi-
cal foundations and disciplinary histories of qualitative research and
serves as a prelude to many of the practice-oriented volumes that
will follow. Brilliantly conceived, it situates language and literacy
research in the larger, multi-disciplinary field of qualitative inquiry.
Kamberelis’ and Dimitriadis’ genealogy of the ideas that converged
to spark the collective imagination of the larger research community
from which qualitative inquiry emerged is intellectually provocative
and highly useful. The authors’ deep knowledge of their subject mat-
ter and their ability to bring such knowledge to life through diverse
examples in language and literacy research are unparalleled. We trust
that these ideas will engage each reader in generative ways, and pro-
vide a heuristic for investigating qualitative approaches to literacy
research. Subsequent volumes will focus on the whys and hows of
conducting literacy and language research within various qualitative
and quantitative approaches.
JoBeth Allen and Donna Alvermann,
NCRLL Editors
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Acknowledgments
e are most grateful to the NCRLL series editors (Donna
Alvermann and JoBeth Allen), without whose insight, coun-
Wsel, and patience this book would never have been complet-
ed. We would also like to thank the entire staff at Teachers College
Press (and especially Carole Saltz, Carol Collins, and Karl Nyberg)
for the outstanding job they did throughout the process of developing
and producing the book.
Several reviewers of an earlier version of the book manuscript—
Peg (Margaret) Finders, David T Cantaffa, and A. Jonathan Eakle—
provided us with formative that were invaluable in making the book
clearer, more accurate, and more accessible. We are deeply indebted to
them for this work. Several other scholars—Stephen Bailey, Marta Al-
bert, and Vanessa Machado—also read and responded to earlier ver-
sions of the book manuscript with care and insight, and we are grate-
ful for the ways in which they helped us improve the work. Finally,
we would like to thank Amy Ferry for her prompt and astute editorial
assistance at many points along the way.
George would like to thank his colleagues and students in the
Reading Department and the School of Education at the State Uni-
versity of New York at Albany, all of whom contribute to the ongoing
creation of fertile spaces for intellectual work. He would also like to
thank the National Academy of Education and the Spencer Founda-
tion whose generous support through a postdoctoral fellowship fund-
ed some of the research and writing for chapters 1 and 2.
Greg would like to thank all of his colleagues and students in the
Graduate School of Education and the Department of Educational
Leadership and Policy at the State University of New York at Buffalo
for their intellectual sustenance and support.
ix
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