Qualitative Research, Power, and the Radical Right

Abstract

Recent legislative and executive orders that mandate preferred methods for evaluating the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 signal a much larger movement in the social sciences. Attacks stemming from the “culture wars” of the 1990s have spread to forms of research labeled “unscientific,” including postmodern research and qualitative research. Examination of the sources of the attacks reveals a wide network of new and recent foundations with decidedly right-wing political views, the establishment and growing power of the National Association of Scholars, and other well-funded efforts to discredit research that uncovers and exposes deep inequities in social life and schooling on gender, race, social class, religion, and/or sexual orientation. Each of these well-funded sources of attack is discussed and the agenda of each is dissected.