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Product Description This highly readable text demystifies the qualitative research process—and helps readers conceptualize their own studies—by organizing the different research paradigms and traditions into coherent clusters. Real-world examples and firsthand perspectives illustrate the research process; instructive exercises and activities build on each other so readers can develop their own proposals or reports as they work through the book. Provided are strategies for selecting a research topic, entering and exiting sites, and navigating the complexities of ethical issues and the researcher's role. Readers learn how to use a range of data collection methods—including observational strategies, interviewing, focus groups, e-mail and chat rooms, and arts-based media—and to manage, analyze, and report the resulting data. Useful pedagogical features include: *In-class and field activities to apply qualitative concepts. *Discussion questions, proposal development exercises, and reflexive journal activities. *Exemplary qualitative studies and two sample proposals. *Cautionary notes, or "Wild Cards," about possible research pitfalls. *Tables that summarize concepts and present helpful tips. Review "This book is a tremendous resource--well written, comprehensive, accurate, insightful, and accessible. I find especially refreshing the way the authors 'cluster' the research traditions, which provides a sound, logical, and fluid way of understanding and applying them. The chapters offer reader-friendly, practical tips in a largely jargon-free writing style that helps to guide the reader through the decisions and dilemmas inherent in a qualitative approach."--Thomas Schram, PhD, Department of Education, University of New Hampshire"This text offers a solid overview of qualitative methods and recognizes the work of major authors in this area. The attention to diverse research traditions will be very helpful to novice researchers, as will the emphasis on helping students develop their own projects, which fits how the research courses in our program are taught. The perspectives, activities, and Wild Cards throughout the chapters reinforce this purpose. Chapters on data collection, analysis, and writing present an array of techniques, strategies, and firsthand accounts to help students work through this process and think critically about their own work. I would use this text and will recommend it to others."--Cray Mulder, PhD, LMSW, School of Social Work, Grand Valley State University, Michigan"Written in an accessible and manageable style for graduate students, advanced undergraduates, or professionals, this book makes excellent use of examples throughout. Readers will be especially interested in the examples the authors bring from their personal research agendas. I really like the discussion of the different purposes of research (basic, applied, action, evaluation), since qualitative research methods texts often neglect to discuss the usefulness of qualitative methods to basic research. The book does a good job of educating readers about why qualitative research is just as rigorous and as valuable as quantitative research. Although primarily targeted toward clinical and educational researchers, this book will be useful for any social scientist who wants to acquire a rich understanding of the theoretical underpinnings of qualitative research."--Lisa Harrison, PhD, Department of Psychology, California State University, Sacramento"This book provides the groundwork for understanding the paradigms and tensions of qualitative inquiry and for building skills in research design, methods, and analysis. Integrated throughout are real-world examples and activities that clearly inform and demystify the process of qualitative research. The graphs, concept maps, quotes from qualitative researchers, and examples are very congruent to what one would find in a qualitative research study. I especially liked the examples of codin