Reflections on Qualitative Research with English Language Learner Youth in Restrictive Language Contexts

Abstract

Drawing on data from a study that reports on local manifestations of restrictive language policy education in an elementary school in the southwestern United States, this chapter examines the qualitative and ethnographic research methods that were utilized throughout the research process (i.e., interviewing, passive and participant observation) as well as the tools that were used to collect data (i.e., audio-recordings and fieldnotes). Specifically, this chapter analyzes the modifications made during the research process, the ways such modifications contributed to the data collection process, and the value of using such research methods with ELLs and their teachers in U.S. schools. This study has implications for methodological aspects of qualitative and ethnographic research in language education.