Toward Disciplined Inquiry: A Methodological Analysis of Whole-Language Research

The purpose of this investigation was to conduct a methodological analysis of the available research on whole language. Studies were selected based on (a) embodied principles of whole language as outlined by Bergeron (1990); (b) the usage of the term whole language in the title, abstract, or body of the article; and (c) research that focused on children's acquisition of literate behaviors. Nineteen quantitative and 6 qualitative studies of whole language were identified and then evaluated by four raters according to their methodological adequacy in terms of (a) the adequacy of the data, (b) the research process, and (c) the empirical grounding. In general the quality of the qualitative investigations of whole language was superior to that of the quantitative studies. The qualitative investigations were adept at establishing empirical grounding and were also able to provide convincing evidence regarding the transferability, dependability, and confirmability of the data. However, the qualitative investigations were weak in their ability to establish the credibility of the data and in their ability to describe the process used to derive categories. Quantitative studies were able to deal with reliability issues and empirical grounding well; however, these studies were quite weak with respect to issues of validity. Guidelines for future studies of whole language are offered in the context of a plea for greater methodological rigor.