Criteria for Assessing Naturalistic Inquiries as Reports

ABSTRACT Research on the assessment of naturalistic inquiries is reviewed, and criteria for assessment are outlined. Criteria reviewed include early foundational and non-foundational criteria, trustworthiness criteria, axiomatic criteria, rhetorical criteria, action criteria, and application/transferability criteria. Case studies that are reports of naturalistic inquiries should meet the following criteria: (1) provide a sense of vicarious "deja vu" experience; (2) allow for use as a metaphor; and (3) allow for use as a basis for re-examining and reconstructing one's own construction of a given phenomena. Product criteria are as important as are process criteria, and studies that can be shown to meet these product criteria will fulfill important functions within the emergent paradigm. Such studies will: resonate with the basic assumptions or axioms of the naturalistic paradigm; exemplify the interpersonal involvement that characterized the form of inquiry; and empower, activate, and stimulate the reader. (TJH)