| Abstract: | This paper addresses the process of creating a historical context for a qualitative, micro-level study, focusing specifically on the case of the junior high middle school. The author reviews three qualitative junior high middle school studies and evaluates the usefulness and adequacy of the historical contexts the authors created to support their interpretations. In two cases, they relied primarily on historical accounts written by education professors in textbooks about the junior high school, which provided a limited point of view. A survey of historians' treatments of the junior high school provides more varied, complex, and theoretical interpretations. In the third case, the author conducted an original historical study to support his present-day qualitative work and his theoretical framework. However, this kind of effort to create an historical context may not be practical in all qualitative studies. Finally, the paper makes recommendations for the construction of adequate and meaningful historical contexts for qualitative studies. |
