[EDLING:1109] [Fwd: Qualitative Research Texts]

Thu Dec 8 16:57:09 UTC 2005

One of the members of the CAE listserv asked people to recommend 
qualitative research texts; I thought the response might be of interest 
. . .

Thank you to everyone who responded to my query. I was surprised and 
awed by the detailed responses I received from so many folks right 
before the AAA conference. It seems as if qualitative research is a 
genuine passion for many of you. The information is so rich that I 
decided to  put together a list of recommended texts in order to share 
with everyone. I tried to paraphrase or describe the text according to 
what recommenders said (if anything was said about the book).

Thanks again to everyone who responded.

Kim

****RECOMMENDED QUALITATIVE RESEARCH TEXTS****

Becker, H./ Writing for Social Scientists/. How to think and write about 
research  in a broad sense.

Becker, H./ Tricks of the Trade/. "I like the interplay between these 
two books: The Merriam book is very thoughtful and straightforward with 
chapters on interviewing,  field observation, collecting artifacts, and 
so on.  The Becker book (Tricks of the Trade) is also thoughtful, but 
takes an entirely different cut through the process of social 
inquiry--with chapters on imagery, concepts, logic, etc."

Bogdan, R. C. and S. K. Biklen (2002). Qualitative Research for 
Education:  An Introduction to Theory and Methods. Boston, Allyn & 
Bacon. A good balance between practice and theory.

Crotty, M. (1998)./ Foundations of Social Research/. A conceptually 
oriented book. Sage publications. A faculty member stated that " Crotty 
is tough going and is not popular with students until they are designing 
their dissertations; then they love him."

Delamont, S. (2001)./ Fieldwork in Educational Settings:  Methods, 
Pitfalls and Perspectives/. London, Falmer Press. "I ... hand out a copy 
of one page from this, a list called The Basic Rules (p. 151), which is 
the best concise guide to data analysis and analytic thinking that I 
know of."

DeMarrais, K. B. (Ed.). (1998)./ Inside stories: Qualitative research 
reflections/. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. ..."It helped students see research 
method decision-making from the perspectives of those who made the 
decisions.  It would be particularly useful in tandem with a curriculum 
that had students designing and initiating their own research projects."

deMarrais, K. and S. D. Lapan, Eds. (2004)./ Foundations for Research: 
Methods of Inquiry in Education and the Social Sciences. Inquiry and 
Pedagogy across Diverse Contexts/. Mahwah, NJ, Lawrence Erlbaum. An 
anthology.

Denzin, N. & Lincoln, Y.S. (Eds.) (1998)./ Strategies of Qualitative 
Inquiry/. Sage Publications. A good comprehensive text for beginners.

Emerson, R. Fretz, R., & Shaw, L. (1995)/ Writing Ethnographic 
Fieldnotes/. Antrhopological and sociological research perspectives and 
guidance.

Esterberg, K.D. (2002)./ Qualitative Methods in Social Research/. 
McGraw-Hill.

Glesne, C. (1999)./ Becoming Qualitative Researchers:  An Introduction/. 
New York, Longman. Others also recommended previous editions, published 
with Alan Peshkin. Very accessible for students in an intro course.

Hammersely, M.  &  P.  Atkinson./ Ethnography: Principles in Practice/. 
"... a single introductory discussion I still like the best of all...."

LeCompte, M., & Schensul, J. (Eds.). (1999)./ The Ethnographer's 
Toolkit/.  Rowman and Littlefield's Altamira Press. 7 books.
Book #1:  "a general introduction to the uses, implementation, data 
collection strategies, and analyses of
qualitative and ethnographic data. It includes a section on research 
designs and one on IRBs and how to work with them. Those aren't usually 
included in general texts."
#2: Essential Ethnographic Methods. "I find volume 2 especially useful 
for students."
#3: Focus groups, Elicitation techniques, audio and video recording.
#5: Analysis techiques (both quant. and qual.), chapter on statistics, 
coding, inductive analysis, displaying data, and interpretation
#6. Researcher role and research partnerships, IRBs.

Marshall, C. & G. Rossman./ An Introduction to Qualitative Research/.

Mason, J. / Qualitative Researching/, 2nd edition, Sage Publications. 
Clearly written: "... students often remark on how useful it is in the 
class and later as they prepare their own dissertation proposals."

Maxwell, J.A. (2005)./ Qualitative Research Design. An Interpretive 
Approach (Second Edition)./ Sage Publications. Straightforward 
information that students find very useful in terms of guiding research 
design. Sample design very helpful.

Merriam, S./ Qualitative Research and Case Study Applications in 
Education/. "I like the interplay between these two books: The Merriam 
book is very thoughtful and straightforward with chapters on 
interviewing,  field observation, collecting artifacts, and so on.  The 
Becker book (Tricks of the Trade) is also thoughtful, but takes an 
entirely different cut through the process of social inquiry--with 
chapters on imagery, concepts, logic, etc."

Nespor, J. website: http://filebox.vt.edu/users/nespor/  "Although not a 
part of course work, I want to add that one of the best resources I have 
found for actually *doing* qualitative research is Jan
Nespor's website."

Patton, M. Q. (2002)./ Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methods/. 
Thousand Oaks, CA, Sage. Good balance between practice and theory.

Rossman, and Rallis, S./ Learning in the Field/. Follows three graduates 
students through their first qualitative course.

Sanjek, R. / Fieldnotes/.

Seidman, I.E. (1991)./ Interviewing as Qualitative Research. A Guide for 
Researchers in Education and the Social Sciences./ Teachers College 
Press. Small and easy to read for beginners.

Shank, G. (2006). Qualitative Research: A Personal Skills Approach. 
Upper Saddle River, NJ, Merrill Prentice Hall.

UGA (University of Georgia) introduction to qualitative research 
website: http://www.coe.uga.edu/leap/qual/index.html)

Wax, R. (1971). / Doing Fieldwork, Warnings and Advice/. Recommended for 
those who will do extended ethnographic fieldwork, drawing from author's 
own experience.

Weis, L. & Fine, M. (2000)./ Speed Bumps: A Student-Friendly Guide to 
Qualitative Research/. New York: Teachers College Press. " I used [it] 
with undergraduate seniors and they really liked it."

Weiss, R. (1995)./ The Art and practice of Qualitative Interview 
Studies/. Out of print but available through Amazon.com

Whyte, W. (1984)./ Learning from the Field/. Recommended for those doing 
extended ethnographic fieldwork, drawing from author's own experience.

-- 

Kimberly Powell
Assistant Professor of Art Education and Curriculum and Instruction
College of Arts and Architecture
College of Education
Penn State University
Art Education Office
201 Arts Cottage
University Park, PA 16802-2905 USA
Phone: 814.863.7308
Fax: 814.863.8664