ABSTRACT
The term research design is somewhat confusing. Social science methodologists have failed to make clear and definitive distinctions among research designs or to clearly discriminate among theoretical frames, research designs, and data collection methods. Sarason speaks of the need to understand the persons being studied from the perspective of their own situation rather than judgmentally from afar, thus reminding people that every research stance constitutes the taking up of a particular perspective, from which some things, and not others, can be seen. People doing research engage in a process called gaining access. The issue of 'gaining access' did cause the author some anxiety. Practice links the greatest virtuoso with the child beginning piano lessons and refutes the notion of learning as a one-way transfer of useful knowledge, a replacement of the unknown with the known. Communities of practice blur the line between aspirants and adepts because both are still developing.
