ABSTRACT
What do educational critics do? How do they select participants and a research site? How do they plan and arrange for the types of fieldwork that will inform their
study?
In Chapters 1 and 2 we gave an overview of educational criticism, as well as a closer look at the meanings and aspects of connoisseurship. In this chapter, we turn toward study design to provide a description of what the critic actually does. We treat the research process as a rich experience in itself, worthy of careful attention. Therefore, we offer fresh ways of thinking about the research process, including selecting a topic, conceptualizing your design through various frameworks, crafting research questions, finding participants, collecting data, and gaining access. As you begin to conceptualize your study, you will be asking yourself questions
about method and procedure. Before we articulate specifically what an educational criticism often entails, we offer several of Eisner’s (1998) premises upon which he built this methodology.
