A Guide to Qualitative Field Research

• Offers Ten Techniques for Analyzing Data: Step-by-step instructions on how to use various techniques for analyzing data are provided that demystify what is often an overwhelming activity. There are three chapters devoted to ten techniques, including descriptions, typologies, taxonomies, visual representations, themes, story telling, critical events, and analytic induction.
• Provides Increased Coverage of Ethics: Ethical issues in field research are examined, including the American Sociological Association′s Code of Ethics in a new Chapter 2. This coverage illuminates that ethical concerns are always present and ethical dilemmas are not always easily resolved.
• Includes New Discussions of Paradigms: More coverage of paradigms is given as well as their implications for the research enterprise, sampling, reflexivity, member checks, triangulation, and criteria for evaluating field research. This new edition has been significantly reorganized and expanded with a greater focus on the role of theory.

Intended Audience:
Clearly written, this accessible text is ideal for advanced undergraduate and graduate students studying qualitative methods and evaluation research across the social sciences.

Carol A. Bailey is an associate professor emerita of sociology at Virginia Tech. She has won numerous teaching awards at the department and university level, including the Alumni Award for Teaching Excellence and the Wine Award for Excellence in Teaching. She taught undergraduate research methods and graduate-level courses on qualitative methodology and pedagogy. Once the Director of the University Writing Program, her research focused on evaluating programs that promote science education and those that serve children with severe mental illnesses and their families.