Rethinking Critical Theory and Qualitative Research (paper)

Notes from Handbook of Qualitative Research - Ch. 12

Critical Ethnography

As critical researchers attempt to get behind the curtain, to move beyond assimilated experience,to expose the way ideology constrains the the desire for self-direction, and to confront the way power reproduces itself in the construction of human consciousness, they employ a plethora of research methodologies. (p. 324)

Catalytic validity points to the degree to which research moves those it studies to understand the world and the way it is shaped in order for them to transform it... ...Research that possesses catalytic validity will not only display the reality-altering of the inquiry process; it will also direct this impact so that those under study will gain self-understanding and self-direction. (p. 324)

To construct a socially critical epistemology, critical ethnographers need to understand holistic modes of human experience and their relationship to communicative structures. (p. 328)

Kincheloe, J.L. & McLaren, P. (2005) Rethinking critical theory and qualitative research. In Denzin, N.K. & Lincoln, Y.S. (Ed) The SAGE handbook of qualitative research 3rd Edition, Sage Publications, California, USA.