THE EVOLUTION OF A RESEARCH DESIGN: A CASE STUDY IN CONTENT READING

In recent years, educators and researchers have become increasingly interested in naturalistic or responsive research. This approach to inquiry seems to be uniquely suited to research in the complex educational setting found in classrooms. This paper discusses one aspect of the application of a responsive paradigm to research in reading in the content area ‐‐ the evolution of the research design. In this study of four secondary school social studies classes major modifications in design were made at several points. These modifications are described and the reasons for the changes are discussed. In summary, allowing the design to emerge as the study progressed resulted in the collection of data that provided a complete view of reading in these classes. In addition, on a personal level, the researchers found that engaging in this type of inquiry influenced their views about how to collect data and what data to collect while, at the same time, enlarging their perspective of reading occurring in content area classrooms.