ABSTRACT

In his exploratory article on guidelines for qualitative research in environmental education, Nick Smith-Sebasto (1999) invites commentary on the quality of inquiry in this field and on guidelines proposed to insure such quality. The purpose of this response article is to examine those guidelines in light of their inherent assumptions in order to clarify and overcome some confusion about qualitative studies within environmental education research. This article argues that to understand and interpret guidelines or criteria or standards for research methods, one needs to consider how these methods are grounded methodologically in terms of their epistemological and ontological underpinnings. Only then can we hope to clarify how qualitative research practice can be connected to theory and guidelines which are appropriate for each particular tradition of qualitative inquiry.