Qualitative Research A Personal Skills Approach

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK AND ORGANIZATION OF THE TEXT When I set out to write an introductory textbook in qualitative research, I had several goals in mind. First and foremost was my desire to create a hands-on learning environment that nonetheless gives instructors and students freedom to tailor and modify the text for their own needs. To that end, I have created 10 exercises that have been built into the text itself. Personally, I feel that the exercises associated with the basic skills are the most important, but instructors should feel free to augment, modify, omit, and substitute based on their particular needs and goals. The important thing is that this text offers a vehicle for incorporating hands-on learning into the overall process. Secondly, I have long felt that qualitative research is in need of a basic vision, and that such a vision ought to be an integral part of any introductory text. To that effort, I have attempted to articulate an inclusive yet clarifying vision in the very first chapter of this text. This vision does not attempt to supplant or replace anyone's current understanding of qualitative research. Instead, I have tried to look at as many points of view and approaches within qualitative research as possible, and then distill out a set of common principles. Those common principles all seem to center around the notion of looking at meaning in empirical settings, and thus the vision used here was born. Finally, I have attempted to integrate the first two points into a cohesive approach that takes advantage of what I feel is the big secret of all qualitative research--qualitative research is based on skills that we already possess. Learning qualitative research is not like learning statistics. When we look at all we do, we see that we are really refining such basic activities as talking, observing, pitching in, and the like. Furthermore, we all have our own areas of strengths and weaknesses. We can use the exercises and the materials dealing with personal skills to tailor our own development programs as qualitative researchers, even as we move beyond the boundaries of the course materials themselves. This should allow us to work from our strengths and to chart out systematic areas for growth at the same time. FEATURES OF THE TEXT This text is essentially divided into four parts. The first part is contained in Chapter 1. In this first chapter, I lay out what I feel are the crucial assumptions and principles that we need in order to learn and then perform qualitative research. The second part consists of the basic skills we need to do most forms of qualitative research. Chapter 2 outlines and discusses the skill of observing, built around an observation exercise. Chapter 3 focuses on the skill of conversing, and this skill is related via exercises and examples in the art of interviewing. Chapter 4 tackles the broad area of participating using a case study project. Chapter 5 rounds out the basic skills by taking a careful and hands-on look at the complex and often implicitly addressed skill of interpreting. Music is used as the foundation of the exercise for this chapter. One reason that music is used is to highlight the realization that, unlike other forms of research, which are primarily visual, qualitative research has a large auditory component to its basic makeup. The third part moves us past the basic skills into the more advanced skills. These advanced skills often play key roles in qualitative research, but they are less obvious and intuitive. Chapter 6 starts us out by considering the task of conceptualizing. How do we wrap ourselves around the task of thinking through a developing qualitative process, toward eventually asking a qualitative research question? Chapter 7 takes us into the realm of reasoning. Logic has always played a part in research. What role does it play in qualitative research? Is the logic of qualitative research,Shank, Gary D. is the author of 'Qualitative Research A Personal Skills Approach' with ISBN 9780130209870 and ISBN 0130209872.