George Kamberelis is a Wyoming Excellence Chair of Literacy Education at the University of Wyoming. Greg Dimitriadis is Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy at the Graduate School of Education, University of Buffalo, The State University of New York.

• 1. Focus Groups: A Brief and Incomplete History 2. Multiple, Interrelated Functions of Focus Group Work 3. Key Affordances of Focus Group Research 4. Fundamental Elements of Effective Focus Group Research Practice 5. Contemporary Dilemmas and Horizons of Focus Group Research 6. Epilogue