UW–Madison’s Lesley Bartlett is receiving the Egon G. Guba 2024 Award for Outstanding Contributions to Qualitative Research.
This honor is given by the American Educational Research Association’s (AERA) Qualitative Research special interest group (SIG). It recognizes scholars who have made significant contributions to comparative ethnography and comparative case studies, especially those who advance the field of qualitative research in providing innovative ways to understand the intersections of culture, citizenship, and education. The award also honors those who promote the use of research to improve education for the public good.
Bartlett is a professor and chair of the School of Education’s Department of Educational Policy Studies. An anthropologist by training who works in the field of international and comparative education, Bartlett’s teaching and research focus on multilingual literacies, migration, and educator professional development.
For the first half of her career, Bartlett conducted mostly ethnographic work. Then, alongside colleague Fran Vavrus, Bartlett developed a comparative case study methodology, which she is arguably most well known for.
Bartlett and Vavrus wrote a book titled, “Rethinking Case Study Research.” This work is credited with revolutionizing uses of comparison in qualitative work. The book explains how case study research exists in a kind of “methodological limbo” and it challenges some aspects of traditional case study research. Due to her expertise in this realm, Bartlett frequently delivers guest lectures in methods courses. She also teaches research methods at UW-Madison and serves as a mentor both on campus and off via her membership in different professional organizations.
“Egon Guba, who often wrote collaboratively with Yvonna Lincoln, made major contributions to the field of education by explaining, in an accessible way, the connections among ontology, epistemology, and methodology,” says Bartlett. “His enthusiasm for constructivist research is legendary. Guba also radically expanded approaches to applied educational research by elaborating responsive, qualitative approaches to evaluation. He was a generous thinker and a passionate proponent of qualitative research and its strengths. I’m truly honored to receive this award named for Dr. Guba.”
Bartlett will be honored on Saturday, April 13, in Philadelphia during the Qualitative Research SIG’s annual meeting that runs in conjunction with AERA’s Annual Meeting April 11-14.