Table of Contents

1. Introduction
Considerations
The Challenges
Developing an Arguement
Overview of the Book
Dialogue Between Authors
Further Reading
Key Concepts
2. Qualitative Research Genres
Major Genres
Critical Genres
Dialogue Between Authors
Dialogue Between Learners
Further Reading
Key Concepts
3. Trustworthiness and Ethics
Trustworthiness
Bringing Ethics Into Trustworthiness
Ethics: Focusing on People
Dialogue Between Authors
Dialogue Between Learners
Further Reading
Key Concepts
4. The What of the Study: Building the Conceptual Framework
Sections of the Proposal
Building the Conceptual Framework: Topic, Purpose, and Significance
Literature Review and Critique of Related Research
Dialogue Between Authors
Dialogue Between Learners
Further Reading
Key Concepts
5. The How of the Study: Building the Research Design
Meeting the Challenge
Justifying Qualitative Research
The Qualitative Genre and Overall Approach
Getting Concrete: The Setting, Site Population, or Phenomenon
Selecting a Sample of People, Actions, Events, and/or Processes
The Researcher′s Role: Issues of Personal Biography, Positionality, Entry, Rapport, Reciprocity, and Ethics
Anticipate Reviewers′ Concerns
Dialogue Between Authors
Dialogue Between Learners
Further Reading
Key Concepts
6. Basic Data Collection Methods
Observation
In-Depth Interviewing
Life Histories, Narrative Inquiry, and Digital Storytelling
Documents and Historical Analysis
Objects and Artifacts of Material Cultures
Dialogue Between Authors
Dialogue Between Learners
Further Reading
Key Concepts
7. Specialized and Focused Data Collection Methods
Using Internet and Digital Applications
Multimodal Approaches
Interaction Analysis
Dilemma Analysis
Combining Data Collection Methods
Dialogue Between Authors
Dialogue Between Learners
Further Reading
Key Concepts
8. Managing, Analyzing, and Interpreting Data
Recording, Managing, Transcribing, and Translating Data
Data Analysis
Generic Data Analysis Strategies
Analytic Procedures
Dialogue Between Authors
Dialogue Between Learners
Further Reading
Key Concepts
9. Stressors: Time, Resources, and Politics
Planning Resources for a Large Study
Topsy-Turvy Politics and Research
Planning Master′s Thesis and Dissertation Research
Dialogue Between Authors
Dialogue Between Learners
Further Reading
Key Concepts
10. Arguing the Merits of Your Proposal and Envisioning the Final Report
Criteria of Soundness
The Essential Qualitativeness of the Research
The Value of the Qualitative Approach
Demonstrating Precedents
Envisioning the Final Report, the Dissertation, or the Book
A Final Word
Dialogue Between Authors
Further Reading
Key Concepts
References

About the Author

Catherine Marshall is the William Eaves Distinguished Professor Emerita of Educational Leadership and Policy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. After completing her PhD, she served on the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania and at Vanderbilt University before settling as professor at North Carolina. The ongoing goal of her teaching and research has been to use an interdisciplinary approach to analyze the cultures of schools, state policy cultures, gender issues, and social justice issues. She has published extensively on the politics of education, qualitative methodology, women’s access to careers, and socialization, language, and values in educational administration.

Marshall’s honors include the Campbell Award for Lifetime Intellectual Contributions to the Field, given by the Politics of Education Association (2009); the University Council for Educational Administration’s Campbell Award for Lifetime Achievement and Contributions to Educational Administration (2008); the American Educational Research Association’s (AERA) Willystine Goodsell Award for her scholarship, activism, and community building on behalf of women and education (2004); and a Ford Foundation grant for Social Justice Leadership (2002). In the American Educational Association, she was elected to head the Politics and Policy Division, and she also created an AERA Special Interest Group called Leadership for Social Justice.

Marshall is the author or editor of numerous other books. These include Activist Educators: Breaking Past Limits; Culture and Education Policy in the American States; The Assistant Principal: Leadership Choices and Challenges; The New Politics of Gender and Race; and Feminist Critical Policy Analysis. This book’s origin came early in her scholarly career, while conducting qualitative research on policy and teaching literally hundreds of doctoral students how to adopt and adapt the qualitative approach into workable proposals. She recognized a need and began to develop this book.

Gretchen B. Rossman is Professor Emerita of International Education and the Center for International Education at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She received her PhD in education from the University of Pennsylvania, with a specialization in higher-education administration. She has served as a visiting professor at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education. Prior to coming to the University of Massachusetts, she was senior research associate at Research for Better Schools in Philadelphia. With an international reputation as a qualitative methodologist, she has expertise in qualitative research design and methods, mixed-methods monitoring and evaluation, and inquiry in education. Over the past 30+ years, she has coauthored 15 books, 2 of which are editions of major qualitative research texts (Learning in the Field, third edition, with Sharon F. Rallis, and the present seventh edition of Designing Qualitative Research, with Catherine Marshall and Gerardo L. Blanco—both widely used guides for qualitative inquiry). In addition, she has published a book titled The Research Journey: An Introduction to Inquiry (with Sharon Rallis). She has also authored or coauthored more than 50 articles, book chapters, and technical reports focused on methodological issues in qualitative research synthesis, mixed-methods evaluation, and ethical research practice, as well as the analysis and evaluation of educational reform efforts both in the United States and internationally.

Professor Rossman has served as principal investigator (PI) or co-PI on several large U.S. Agency for International Development–funded projects (in Palestine, the Southern Sudan, Malawi, Tanzania, and India); as co-PI on a World Bank–funded multigrade schooling project (Senegal and Gambia); as lead trainer for a Save the Children–funded participatory monitoring and evaluation of professional training (Azerbaijan); and as external evaluator on several domestic projects, including a Department of Education–funded reform initiative, a National Science Foundation–funded middle-grades science initiative, and a number of projects implementing more inclusive practices for students with disabilities.

Reviews

"This is a handy, practical text for newcomers to qualitative research who are preparing a proposal."
*Jon Travis, Texas A&M University - Commerce*

"This is by far the most readable text on methodology I′ve used in my work with education graduate students. Its careful, detailed and rich explanation of the research process makes it a crucial tool for anyone working with students who are ready to begin the process of qualitative research. But it is the thick, authentic descriptions of researchers actively engaging in the puzzles and dilemmas of doing complex, ethical, and socially powerful research that makes it an invaluable guide for the student at all stages in their research process. It is a text that a student will return to over and over again, and become that dog eared companion that accompanies them from the beginning to end of their research journey."
*Catherine McGregor, University of Victoria*

"A student friendly book that would have been beneficial to my own research development in graduate school."
*Ifeoma Amah, University of Texas at Arlington*

"The authors create a mosaic of qualitative research procedures using text, tables, figures, and vignettes that move the reader between the theoretical and practical aspects of conducting quality research."
*LeAnn Putney, University of Nevada - Las Vegas*

"This text will be helpful to graduate students when they first encounter qualitative research and its possibilities. It is both practical and philosophical, and it provides useful advice on strategies to embrace and pitfalls to avoid."
*Mary Jean Herzog, Western Carolina University*