EDITORIAL

Signs of Life

I t would seem that research would not be a controversial topic. Yet, as manuscripts arrived for this special issue of Child Care Quarterly, it became clear that writing about research in child and youth care was not only difficult, it was controversial. Each of the articles takes a stand. All of them are slightly "off-center" in the context of the traditional research establishment. As a result, their reception in manuscript form was mixed. Reviewers disagreed, and it became obvious that the topic was an evocative one. Thus, this issue stands as a forum--the outcome of debate and, hopefully, a source of further debate.

The fact that a special issue devoted to research came into existence indicates a growing interest in asking questions with implications that are unique to child care. We are discovering~that we must look to ourselves to answer our questions because the perspectives, methods, and responses offered by other disciplines often fall short of our needs.

All of the articles address issues in ways which directly involve practitioners and reflect an unwillingness to relegate research to the traditional, academic researchers, even among researchers themselves. In order to discover, describe, and understand child and youth care settings, many of the authors urge the involvement of practitioners in the research process and the involvement of researchers in the child caring process, thus suggest ing that these processes overlap. I t is clear that the laboratory approach of experimental research is not the rallying cry of research in our field.

Individually, the articles stretch, illuminate, and inform our awareness of the research needs of the field, ranging from relatively formal presentations of particular facets of child and youth care research to Webster ' s refreshing reminder that the essence of t ru th includes a chuckle along with careful thought and hard work. Together, we hope that they represent a fair appraisal of the state of the art and the areas of need.

Controversy can be interpreted as a sign of life. Hopefully, these articles will help to st imulate and enhance what has so far been an inadequate, relatively unsophisticated, and largely extrinsic research effort in the child and youth care field.

C.J.P.

Child Care Quarterly, 11{1), Spring 1982 0045-6632/81/1300-0003500.95©1982 Human Sciences Press 3