AN INTRODUCTION TO QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

This guide has been used as an introductory text on several master's level courses aimed at teachers, health professionals and business consultants. It is not meant to be definitive. Its purpose is to begin the process of people thinking about doing their own research for their own purposes. In each course it was revised to meet the needs of the students and was first placed on the Enquiry Learning Unit website in 1995. It is continually being revised. For explorations of carrying out interviews, see From Interview to Inter-View and Interviewing - Creating the Space for Views. For further insights into research methodologies go to the resources page. And for more developments of these ideas see my recent books:

Schostak, J.F. (2002) Understanding, Designing and Conducting Qualitative Research in Education. Framing the Project. Open University Press

Schostak, J.F. (2006) Interviewing and Representation in Qualitative Research Projects, Open University press

Schostak, J. F., and Schostak, J.R. (2008) Radical Research. Designing, Developing and Writing Research to Make a Difference, Routledge

CONTENTS

Chapter 1 WHAT IS QUALITATIVE RESEARCH?
Chapter 2 QUALITATIVE VERSUS QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH
Chapter 3 RESEARCHING ACTION AND CHANGE
Chapter 4 ACTION RESEARCH
Chapter 5 EVALUATION - A CASE STUDY AS AN EXAMPLE
Chapter 6 WHAT IS EVALUATION?
Chapter 7 HOW TO DO EVALUATION
Chapter 8 PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Chapter 9 SOME THEORIES OF LEARNING AND THE PROCESS OF PROFESSIONAL REFLECTION

Brief Glossary

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