EPISTEMOLOGICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES IN A TRANSATLANTIC RESEARCH PROJECT ON INCLUSIVE EDUCATION Eloff, Irma (University of Pretoria, South Africa) Engelbrecht, Petra (University of Stellenbosch, South Africa) Kozleski, Elizabeth (University of Colorado, USA) Oswald, Marietjie (University of Stellenbosch, South Africa) Swart, Estelle (RAU, South Africa) Yssel, Nina (Ball State University, USA) Paper presented at AARE, 1-5 December 2002, Brisbane, Australia Paper code: ELO 02038 Abstract Inclusive education is affecting educational systems worldwide. This global trend has necessitated broader collaboration and a need to expand our understanding of what it means to have authentic inclusive learning environments. One of the least explored aspects in inclusive education relates to the parents of the children who are being included. In this paper we wish to share some of the epistemological and methodological issues that we have encountered in a research project that is exploring the perceptions and experiences of parents and caregivers who are involved in inclusive education in South Africa and the USA. From the onset the different contexts in which the research was to be undertaken raised the question for culturally sensitive social analysis. The multiplicity of perspectives was recognized early on and was evidenced in the frequency of electronic correspondence between the researchers on epistemological and methodological questions in both the pilot and the main study. In this study we opted for an emergent research design in which we cannot afford to neglect the transformations that take place in the research discourse. This paper will explore some of these transformations and plot the causal sequences that resulted from these discourses. INTRODUCTION In this paper we turn the lens towards an often under-reported part of the research process. We focus on the epistemological and methodological issues that arose from a research project that is exploring the perceptions and experiences of parents and caregivers who are