Chapter 3

THE RESEARCH PROCESS

The Methodology: An Ethnographic Approach

The methodology employed in this study is, unlike the methodology in the reviewed research, primarily ethnographic. A review of the literature on attendance confirmed that survey research data about ABE students provides only partial information. While survey methods are useful, they do not provide sufficient depth or understanding of complicated phenomena; nor do they provide information on the personally and socially less acceptable (and therefore less accessible) reasons for leaving, reasons often related to resistance, boredom or frustration. Nor do survey methods provide complex information about what helps ABE students to remain in ABE programs.

I chose observation and interview methods because information about why individuals act in the ways they do is complex and not necessarily always fully accessible, even perhaps to the individuals themselves. The ethnographic approach allows research issues to be explored in context and at length; it adds both breadth and depth to the data. The hours of observations and interviews create a layering of information about influences on students' actions regarding attendance.