Qualitative Research Design : An Interactive

This book gives researchers and students a user-friendly, step-by-step guide to planning qualitative research. Based on a course that the author taught for 7 years at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, it is written in an informal, jargon-free style and incorporates many examples and hands-on exercises. Rather than the rigid, linear approach to design usually found in research methods textbooks, which is particularly unsuited to qualitative research, the book presents a flexible, systemic model of design. This model not only better fits what experienced qualitative researchers actually do, but provides a clear framework for designing a study and developing a research proposal. This edition includes new or substantially expanded discussions of research paradigms, defining a research problem, site and participant selection, relationships with research participants, data analysis, and validity, as well as more examples and exercises.

Joseph A. Maxwell is an Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Education at George Mason University.

Preface

ix

Preface to the First Edition

xi

1. A Model for Qualitative Research Design

1

(14)

EXAMPLE 1.1: The Evolution of a Research Design

7

(3)

The Organization of This Book

10

(1)

The Exercises in This Book

11

(2)

Notes

13

(2)

2. Goals: Why Are You Doing This Study?

15

(18)

Personal, Practical, and Intellectual Goals

16

(6)

EXAMPLE 2.1: Using Personal Experience to Choose a Dissertation Topic

17

(2)

EXAMPLE 2.2: The Importance of Personal Values and Identity

19

(3)

What Goals Can Qualitative Research Help You Achieve?

22

(10)

EXAMPLE 2.3: Deciding on a Dissertation Topic

25

(2)

Exercise 2.1: Researcher Identity Memo

27

(1)

EXAMPLE 2.4: Researcher Identity Memo for a Study of Educational Reform in Bolivia

28

(4)

Note

32

(1)

3. Conceptual Framework: What Do You Think Is Going On?

33

(32)

Connecting With a Research Paradigm

36

(1)

Experiential Knowledge

37

(4)

EXAMPLE 3.1: Identity Memo on Diversity

39

(2)

EXAMPLE 3.2: How One Researcher Used Her Personal Experience to Refocus Her Research Problem

41

(1)

Prior Theory and Research

41

(5)

EXAMPLE 3.3: Using Existing Theory

44

(2)

Concept Maps

46

(9)

Exercise 3.1: Creating a Concept Map for Your Study

52

(3)

Other Uses of Existing Research

55

(1)

Pilot and Exploratory Studies

56

(2)

EXAMPLE 3.4: How a Student Used a Pilot Study to Help Design Her Dissertation Research

57

(1)

Thought Experiments

58

(5)

EXAMPLE 3.5: Using a Thought Experiment to Develop a Theory of the Persistence of Illiteracy

59

(1)

Exercise 3.2: Creating a Model of the Development of Friendship Patterns

60

(3)

Notes

63

(2)

4. Research Questions: What Do You Want to Understand?

65

(14)

EXAMPLE 4.1: The Development of Research Questions

66

(1)

The Functions of Research Questions

67

(1)

Research Questions and Other Kinds of Questions

68

(1)

Research Hypotheses in Qualitative Designs

69

(1)

Generic Questions and Particularistic Questions

70

(2)

Instrumentalist Questions and Realist Questions

72

(2)

Variance Questions and Process Questions

74

(2)

Developing Research Questions

76

(3)

Exercise 4.1: Developing Your Research Questions

76

(3)

5. Methods: What Will You Actually Do?

79

(26)

Structured and Unstructured Approaches

80

(2)

Negotiating Research Relationships

82

(5)

EXAMPLE 5.1: Negotiating Relationships in a Practitioner Research Study

85

(1)

Exercise 5.1: Reflecting on Your Research Relationships

86

(1)

Site and Participant Selection

87

(4)

Decisions About Data Collection

91

(4)

Decisions About Data Analysis

95

(1)

Strategies for Qualitative Data Analysis

95

(7)

EXAMPLE 5.2: A Mismatch Between Questions and Analysis

99

(3)

Linking Methods and Questions

102

(1)

Exercise 5.2: Questions and Methods Matrix

102

(1)

Notes

103

(2)

6. Validity: How Might You Be Wrong?

105

(12)

The Concept of Validity

106

(2)

Two Specific Validity Threats: Bias and Reactivity

108

(1)

Validity Tests: A Checklist

109

(6)

Exercise 6.1: Identifying and Dealing With Validity Threats

114

(1)

Generalization in Qualitative Research

115

(1)

Notes

116

(1)

7. Research Proposals: Presenting and Justifying a Qualitative Study

117

(22)

The Purpose of a Proposal

118

(1)

The Proposal as an Argument

119

(1)

The Relationship Between Research Design and Proposal Argument

120

(1)

A Model for Proposal Structure

121

(16)

EXAMPLE 7.1: The Argument of a Dissertation Proposal

129

(2)

EXAMPLE 7.2: An Outline of a Dissertation Proposal Argument

131

(4)

Exercise 7.1: Developing a Proposal Argument

135

(2)

Notes

137

(2)

Appendix: An Example of a Qualitative Proposal

139

(20)

References

159

(8)

Index

167

(8)

About the Author

175

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Qualitative Research Design : An Interactive Approach

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials