Summary
Contents
Subject index
Exploring 100 key questions (and answers) on the nature and practice of qualitative inquiry, this unique book addresses the practical decisions that researchers must make in their work, from the design of the study, through ethics approval, implementation, and writing. The book’s quick-scan, question-and-answer format make it ideal as a supplementary text or as a ready reference for graduate students preparing for comprehensive exams and writing research proposals, undergraduates in affiliated programs who will not be taking a primary course in qualitative research methods, and researchers working across disciplines in academic or practice environments.
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Front Matter
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Chapters
Part 1: The Nature of Qualitative Inquiry
- Chapter 1: What Is Qualitative Research?
- Chapter 2: What Disciplines Use Qualitative Approaches and Are There Differences in Disciplinary Approach?
- Chapter 3: Is Qualitative Research Used in Practice or Only in Academic Research?
- Chapter 4: My Supervisor Says That Quantitative Research Is More Objective, So It’s Better Than Qualitative Research. Is That True?
- Chapter 5: What Is the Difference Between “Ontology” and “Epistemology,” and Why Do They Matter?
- Chapter 6: I’ve Heard That Qualitative Research Is More Inductive Rather Than Deductive—What Does That Mean?
- Chapter 7: What Is the Difference Between a Project Designed With a Qualitative “Paradigm” and a Project Designed to Gather Qualitative “Data”?
- Chapter 8: What Is the Difference Between Quantitative Positivism and Qualitative Constructionism?
- Chapter 9: Qualitative Research Seems to Always Involve People—Is That True?
- Chapter 10: What Is the Difference Between a Research Participant and a Research Subject?
- Chapter 11: My Participants Are Really Co-Researchers in My Work—So What Are the Implications for My Project?
- Chapter 12: What Kind of Education or Training Do I Need to Conduct Qualitative Research?
- Chapter 13: What Kind of Time Investment Is Needed for a Qualitative Research Study?
- Chapter 14: Qualitative Research Seems to Be More Expensive to Do Than Other Types of Research—Is That So?
- Chapter 15: What Are the Limitations of Qualitative Research?
Part 2: Ethical Issues in Qualitative Research
- Chapter 16: What Are the Researcher’s Ethical Responsibilities in Qualitative Practice?
- Chapter 17: At What Stage of the Research Do I Need to Get a Formal Ethics Review to Talk to People?
- Chapter 18: What Kinds of Ethics Challenges Do Qualitative Researchers Face, Typically?
- Chapter 19: Ethics Approval Seems to Be More Difficult to Obtain for Qualitative Projects. Is That True?
- Chapter 20: Can I Name My Participants and Their Organization in Publications About My Study?
- Chapter 21: I’m Going to Do Focus Groups and I Know I’ll Need Ethics Approval for Those—But Can I Examine Postings to Social Media Without Seeking Ethics Approval?
- Chapter 22: Can I Show My Colleague Some Transcripts and Let Her Listen to Interview Recordings to Get Advice on My Interpretation of the Data?
- Chapter 23: The Ethics Review Board Requires Me to Submit My Interview Questions—But the Project Is Exploratory and the Questions Will Emerge as the Interview Happens. What Types of Questions Should I Submit for Review?
- Chapter 24: The Ethics Review Board Says I Have to Destroy My Data, but I Think My Analysis Will Take Years. Do I Have to Destroy Everything?
- Chapter 25: I Have Learned Negative Things About People in the Setting I’m Studying. How Do I Deal With This?
- Chapter 26: My Ethics Approval Says That I Have to Let the Board Know if There are “Significant Changes” to My Methodology and/or Method. As My Qualitative Study Is Exploratory and Emergent in Design, How Do I Know When a Significant Change Has Occurred?
- Chapter 27: One of My Participants Told Other People That She Was Involved in My Study, Even Though I Promised I Would Not Identify Her. Is This a Problem?
Part 3: Designing Qualitative Research
- Chapter 28: What Is a Qualitative Research Problem—And How Does This Inform the Development of Research Questions?
- Chapter 29: What Is the Role of a Hypothesis in Qualitative Research?
- Chapter 30: What Is an Exploratory Qualitative Design? If I Do This, Does It Mean That My Research Isn’t Going to Come Up With “Usable” Findings?
- Chapter 31: What Is an Emergent Qualitative Design?
- Chapter 32: What Is the Role of a Theoretical and/or Conceptual Framework in a Qualitative Study?
- Chapter 33: How Extensive Should My Literature Review Be When I’m Designing My Project?
- Chapter 34: What Kinds of Sampling Approaches Are Appropriate for Qualitative Studies?
- Chapter 35: Why Are Sample Sizes So Small in Many Qualitative Studies? Isn’t This a Problem?
- Chapter 36: What Is the Ideal Sample Size for a Qualitative Project?
- Chapter 37: How Do You Recruit Participants for a Qualitative Study?
- Chapter 38: I Really Want to Use Focus Groups, So How Can I Design a Project That Will Use That Method?
- Chapter 39: What Is Triangulation?
Part 4: Ensuring Rigor in Qualitative Research Design
- Chapter 40: I’ve Heard That Quantitative Research Is More Rigorous Than Qualitative Research—Is That True?
- Chapter 41: What Are Effective Strategies for Promoting Trustworthiness?
- Chapter 42: I’ve Heard That Qualitative Studies Suffer From Researcher Bias. How Do I Deal With This Criticism?
- Chapter 43: Can the Findings From Qualitative Research Be Generalized? I’ve Heard They Can Be Transferable, but I Don’t Know the Differences Between These Terms.
- Chapter 44: How Do I Ensure That My Study Will Have an Impact on Other Scholars or Practitioners?
- Chapter 45: What Are Useful and Practical Approaches to Ensure That I Am Gathering Good Data?
Part 5: Methodologies and Methods
- Chapter 46: What Are the Differences Between Qualitative “Design,” “Methodology,” and “Method”?
- Chapter 47: All the Studies I’ve Read Seem to Use Interviews. What Other Methods Can I Use to Make My Study More Interesting?
- Chapter 48: I Don’t Understand the Differences Between Grounded Theory, Phenomenology, Case Study, Ethnography, Narrative Inquiry, and So On. Can I Combine These—Or Choose Not to Use One of These Approaches at All?
- Chapter 49: What Kinds of Research Methods Are Appropriate for Talking With People?
- Chapter 50: What Are the Pros and Cons of Conducting Individual Versus Group Interviews?
- Chapter 51: I Want to Observe What People Are Doing, but I Don’t Want Them to Know That I’m Watching. Can I Do That?
- Chapter 52: How Can I Use Documents in My Qualitative Study?
- Chapter 53: I’ve Heard That There Are Some Interesting Visual Methods That I Can Use—What Are They?
- Chapter 54: In My Discipline We Conduct a Lot of Systematic Reviews of the Literature. Is It Possible to Do a Qualitative Systematic Review?
Part 6: Mixed-Methods Research Involving Qualitative Approaches
- Chapter 55: I’ve Heard That Qualitative Research Is Only Useful as a First, Exploratory Step to Designing a Quantitative Project—Is That True?
- Chapter 56: How Can Qualitative Research Complement a Quantitative Study?
- Chapter 57: Which Do I Do First—The Qualitative Component of the Study or the Quantitative Component?
- Chapter 58: I Have Included Some Open-Ended Questions Alongside the Closed-Response Items on My Survey/Questionnaire. Am I Conducting Qualitative Research?
- Chapter 59: Is It Better to Bring a Qualitative Researcher Onto My Team, or Should I Try to Do the Qualitative Research Myself?
- Chapter 60: I’ve Only Ever Used Quantitative Designs, but I Want to Use Qualitative Approaches Now—What Are the Key Issues I Need to Consider and How Can I Learn More About Them?
Part 7: Collecting Qualitative Data
- Chapter 61: How Do I Conduct a Pilot Study for My Qualitative Research Project?
- Chapter 62: My Colleague Says That We Need to Be Unobtrusive When Gathering Data—What Does That Mean?
- Chapter 63: Can I Hire Someone to Do All of the Data Collection?
- Chapter 64: What Does It Mean to Be “Neutral” When I’m Gathering My Data?
- Chapter 65: What Does “Fieldwork” Involve in a Qualitative Project?
- Chapter 66: What Does It Mean to Gather “Rich Data”?
- Chapter 67: Do I Have to Transcribe All of My Interview Data or Can I Simply Transcribe a Few Quotes When I Need Them?
- Chapter 68: What Are the Pros and Cons of Audio or Video Recording My Participants?
- Chapter 69: Qualitative Research Seems to Involve a Lot of Talking to People. Sounds Easy—So What Issues Should I Expect if I’m Doing Formal or Informal Interviews With Individuals or Groups?
- Chapter 70: Do I Have to Work With My Participants in Person, or Can I Use the Internet (or Other Tools) to Gather Data at a Distance?
- Chapter 71: There Are Many Interviews and Other Potential Sources of Data Online, Including People’s Quotes Posted to Social Media and Websites. Can I Use These in My Qualitative Study?
- Chapter 72: I See That Some Qualitative Studies Use Participant-Generated Photographs, Drawings, and Other Arts-Based Approaches. When Is It Appropriate to Use These Kinds of Methods for Gathering Data?
- Chapter 73: I Have a Lot of Data—Dozens of Digital Data Files, Hundreds of Pages of Printed Transcripts, and Hours of Video-Recordings. How Can I Manage All of This Material?
- Chapter 74: How Do I Know When I’ve Reached Saturation of Themes in My Data?
- Chapter 75: My Colleague Says That There Are Many “Lost Opportunities” in His Dataset. What Does That Mean?
- Chapter 76: I’m Trying to Select the Best Site for Conducting Individual Interviews, So How Do I Choose?
Part 8: Conducting Qualitative Analysis
- Chapter 77: Do I Have to Wait Until My Data Collection Is Done Before I Can Start Analyzing My Data?
- Chapter 78: My Supervisor Says I Should Use an Interpretive Lens for My Analysis—What Does This Mean?
- Chapter 79: What Is the Process for “Coding” My Dataset? Can I BorrowSomeone Else’s Codebook to Get Me Started?
- Chapter 80: What Is the Difference Between “Themes,” “Codes,” and “Categories”?
- Chapter 81: Does the Person Who Gathered the Data Have to Be the Person Who Codes and Analyzes Those Data?
- Chapter 82: I’ve Heard Data Analysis Described as an Iterative Process of Coding. What Does That Mean?
- Chapter 83: How Can I Use a Team to Code Data?
- Chapter 84: Do Qualitative Researchers Count Things in Their Data, or Is This Only Done in Quantitative Research?
- Chapter 85: Will Using a Qualitative Data Analysis Software Package Improve the Quality of My Results?
- Chapter 86: What Is the Best Software Package to Use for Qualitative Data Analysis?
- Chapter 87: Does It Matter if Someone Else Interprets My Results in a Different Way?
- Chapter 88: I Have Anomalous Data. Is This a Problem?
- Chapter 89: I’ve Heard That I Need to Immerse Myself in the Data During Analysis, but I Have a Full-Time Job. How Much Time Do I Need to Devote to This Process?
- Chapter 90: My Analysis Seems to Raise More Questions Than Answers, So What Do I Do About This?
Part 9: Writing Qualitative Research
- Chapter 91: How Do I Present My Findings So That They Reflect Both My Analysis and the Participants’ Voices?
- Chapter 92: I’ve Assigned My Participants Numbers (to Keep Them Anonymous in the Writing) but Now My Supervisor Says I Should Give Them Pseudonyms Instead. Which Approach Is Best?
- Chapter 93: My Supervisor Says I Should “Give Voice” to My Research Participants in My Writing—What Does That Mean?
- Chapter 94: I Have Some Pictures, Audio-Recordings, and Other Multimedia Data, So How Can I Include These in Publications?
- Chapter 95: Journal Articles in My Discipline Are Limited in Length, So How Can I Present My Results in a Succinct Way While Providing Enough Detail to Support My Arguments?
- Chapter 96: I Have a Lot of Data and I’m Struggling to Fit Everything Into One Paper! How Can I Write Up My Results in a Single Research Report?
- Chapter 97: Qualitative Research Reports Are Published in Many Formats and Styles, Ranging From Traditional (i.e., With Results, Discussion, and Conclusions) to Progressive (e.g., Narrative Short Stories, Poetry, Plays). Which Approach Should I Choose for My Own Report?
- Chapter 98: What Kind of Audience Reads Qualitative Research Reports, Typically?
- Chapter 99: My Data Are Just Interview Transcripts and Other Texts, So How Can I Present My Findings in a Visual Poster Presentation?
- Chapter 100: Should I Send Copies of My Publications to My Participants?
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