Learning in the Field : An Introduction to Qualitative Research

"What sets this book apart is its skillful integration of both the scientific and artistic dimensions of qualitative research."

--From the foreword by Michael Quinn Patton, author of Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methods, Third Edition

The popular text that helped readers better understand and practice qualitative research has been completely updated and revised while retaining the features that made the First Edition so useful.

New to this edition:

• Chapter 3 on the ethics and politics of qualitative research
• Chapter 4 on choosing the locus of interest among the major qualitative research approaches
• Chapter 10 expanded to provide detailed instructions for organizing, coding, interpreting, and analyzing data
• Chapters 8 and 11 present examples of the three student characters' data and analysis
• Concept boxes highlight major themes and issues and summarize important principles
• End-of-chapter study questions and activities

Sharon F. Rallis is Dwight W. Allen Distinguished Professor of Education Policy and Reform at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst where she is also director of the Center for Education Policy. Previously, she was professor of education at the University of Connecticut; lecturer on education at Harvard; and associate professor of educational leadership at Peabody College, Vanderbilt University. Her doctorate is from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She has co-authored ten books, including several on leadership: Principals of Dynamic Schools: Taking Charge of Change (with Ellen Goldring); Dynamic Teachers: Leaders of Change (with Gretchen Rossman); Leading Dynamic Schools: How to create and Implement Ethical Policies (with Gretchen Rossman and others); and Leading with Inquiry and Action: How Principals Improve Teaching and Learning (with Matthew Militello and Ellen Goldring). Her numerous articles, book chapters, edited volumes, and technical reports address issues of research and evaluation methodology, ethical practice in research and evaluation, education policy and leadership, and school reform.

A past-president of the American Evaluation Association (2005), Rallis has been involved with education and evaluation for over three decades. She has been a teacher, counselor, principal, researcher, program evaluator, director of a major federal school reform initiative, and an elected school board member. Currently, her teaching includes courses on inquiry, program evaluation, qualitative methodology, and organizational theory. Her research has focused on the local implementation of programs driven by federal, state, or district policies. As external evaluator or principal investigator (PI), she has studied a variety of domestic and international policy and reform efforts, such as: alternative professional development for leaders; collaborations between agencies responsible for educating incarcerated or institutionalized youth; initiatives supporting inclusive education for children and youth with disabilities; local school governance and leadership; labor-management relations in school districts. Rallis’ work with students on evaluation and qualitative methodology has taken her as far as Afghanistan and Palestine.

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Professional Interests:

Qualitative research design and methods; ethics in research practice; education reform in developing countries