Ethics and Representation in Qualitative Studies of Literacy

Book excerpt: Reflecting on the practice of qualitative literacy research, this book presents 14 essays that address the most pressing questions faced by qualitative researchers today: how to represent others and themselves in research narratives; how to address ethical dilemmas in research-participant relations; and how to deal with various rhetorical, institutional, and historical constraints on research. After a foreword ("Considering Research Methods in Composition and Rhetoric" by Andrea A. Lunsford and others) and an introduction ("Reflections on Methodology in Literacy Studies" by the editors), essays in the book are (1) "Seduction and Betrayal in Qualitative Research" (Thomas Newkirk); (2) "Still-Life: Representations and Silences in the Participant-Observer Role" (Brenda Jo Brueggemann); (3) "Dealing with the Data: Ethical Issues in Case Study Research" (Cheri L. Williams); (4) "'Everything's Negotiable': Collaboration and Conflict in Composition Research" (Russel K. Durst and Sherry Cook Stanforth); (5) "Dilemmas of Fidelity: Qualitative Research in the Classroom" (Helen Dale); (6) "Ethnography and the Problem of the 'Other'" (Patricia A. Sullivan); (7) "Turning in upon Ourselves: Positionality, Subjectivity, and Reflexivity in Case Study and Ethnographic Research" (Elizabeth Chiseri-Strater); (8) "Constructing Voices in Writing Research: Developing Participatory Approaches to Situated Inquiry" (Ann M. Blakeslee and others); (9) "A Text for Many Voices: Representing Diversity in Reports of Naturalistic Research" (Lucille Parkinson McCarthy and Stephen M. Fishman); (10) "Culture on the Page: Experience, Rhetoric, and Aesthetics in Ethnographic Writing" (Bonnie S. Sunstein); (11) "Engendering Ethnography: Insights from the Feminist Critique of Postmodern Anthropology" (Roxanne D. Mountford); (12) "Writing, Rap, and Representation: Problematic Links between Texts and Experience" (Jabari Mahiri); (13) "Social and Institutional Power Relationships in Studies of Workplace Writing" (Jennie Dautermann); and (14) "Ethics, Institutional Review Boards, and the Involvement of Human Participants in Composition Research" (Paul V. Anderson). An afterword ("Ethics and Representation in Teacher Research" by Ruth E. Ray) is attached. Each chapter contains references. (RS)