An Ecological Approach to Research

This chapter describes the evolution of this study from the time I first began to consider doing dissertation research on homeless children. There is a discussion of the research perspective, which is characterized as an “ecological perspective” (Toro, Trickett, Wall, & Salem, 1991). The research site and sample are described and research methods and analysis are explained. The final section of the chapter addresses the importance of researcher familiarity with the two contexts of educating homeless children: the “schooling context” and the “homelessness context.”