Zooming in on the Qualitative Paradigm in Art Education: Educational Criticism, Ethnography, and Action Research

Within the qualitative paradigm there are several related approaches each with distinct disciplinary and intellectual traditions. These approaches differ in their aims, in the issues they explore, in the tradition in which they are embedded and in the writing style in which the recount is written. Other differences have to do with the specific perspectives from which researchers conduct their research and the various roles they assume in the study. In this paper, I examine three genres of: (a) educational connoisseurship and criticism; (b) ethnography, and (c) action research, focusing on their intellectual roots, characteristics, and methods. Research in each of these genres can address fundamental gaps of knowledge in education. The understanding of the assumptions, methods, and contributions these genres make to the theory and practice of art instruction can help expand the boundaries of knowledge in art education research.