The purpose of this study is to analyze and examine the possibility and the uses of three different kinds of qualitative research, ethnographic study, case study, and action research in art education. Since the 1990s, the qualitative approaches to educational research has called attention by virtue of their advantages to describe and understand the complexity and dynamics of humans and human societies within authentic contexts of learning and schooling. Notwithstanding aforementioned advantages of the qualitative approaches, researchers in the field of art education have struggled to sort out the differences and similarities for the uses of different qualitative approaches. This study explores the applicability of three qualitative research methods, such as ethnographic study, action research, and case study among others. The findings of this study include: ① ethnographic study is designed to delineate the value systems and believes underlying particular cultural practices and it is to suggest alternative perspectives on preexisting educational practices: ② action research is geared toward the improvement of educational practices and further the empowerment of educators along with their students as active learners and researchers: ③ case study is aimed to describe and understand “a bounded system - a case” undergoing changes over time. Employing a pragmaticist view point, case study incorporates almost every possible research methods for the pursuit of the rich description of a case or cases and the interpretation of results of a case study is completed by readers, not by researchers.