Meta-ethnography : synthesizing qualitative studies / George W. Noblit, R. Dwight Hare.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Noblit, George W.

Contributor:

Hare, R. Dwight.

Series:

Qualitative research methods ; v. 11.

Qualitative research methods ; v. 11

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ethnology--Methodology.

Ethnology.

Ethnology--Authorship.

Physical Description:

88 pages ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Newbury Park : Sage Publications, [1988]

Summary:

This provocative volume deals with one of the chief criticisms of ethnographic studies, a criticism which centres on their particularism or their insistence on context -- the question is asked: How can these studies be generalized beyond the individual case? Noblit and Hare propose a method -- meta-ethnography -- for synthesizing from qualitative, interpretive studies. They show that ethnographies themselves are interpretive acts, and demonstrate that by translating metaphors and key concepts between ethnographic studies, it is possible to develop a broader interpretive synthesis. Using examples from numerous studies, the authors illuminate how meta-ethnography works, isolate several types of meta-ethnographic study and provide a theoretica

Contents:

1. The Idea of a Meta-Ethnography 10

The Paradigm Problem 11

The Meaning of Meta-Ethnography 12

Knowledge Synthesis 14

Synthesizing Understanding 17

Not Seeing the Forest for the Trees: The Failure of Synthesis for the Desegregation Ethnographies 18

The Problem of Ethnographic Synthesis 21

Success from Failure 23

Understanding and Knowledge 24

One Basis for a Meta-Ethnography 25

2. A Meta-Ethnographic Approach 26

An Alternative Theory of Social Explanation 29

Metaphors and Meta-Ethnography 33

The Judgment Calls 34

Part II Constructing Meta-Ethnographies 38

3. Reciprocal Translations as Syntheses 38

School Principal's Synthesis 40

"Crisis of Authority" Synthesis 43

4. Refutational Synthesis 47

When Ethnographies Don't Add, Analyze Refutations 48

The Everhart-Cusick Debate 49

Metaphors for Refutational Synthesis 52

The Freeman Refutation of Mead 54

5. Lines-of-Argument Synthesis 62

Clinical Inference 62

Grounded Theorizing 63

Lines of Argument and Meta-Ethnography 64

The Desegregation Ethnographies Synthesis 64

6. Inscribing Meta-Ethnographies 75

Creating Analogies 75

Expressing Synthesis 77

Claims about the Meaning of a Meta-Ethnography 79.

Notes:

Bibliography: pages 83-86.

ISBN:

0803930224 :

0803930232

OCLC:

16647196