Qualitative Research Design: An Interactive Approach (Applied Social Research Methods)

Are you thinking about doing a qualitative study, or currently in the middle of one? If so, Joseph A. Maxwell′s Qualitative Research Design is the reliable guide for you. Taking a hands-on, innovative approach to qualitative design, it emphasizes the components of a design, how these interact with each other, and the environment in which the study is situated. Maxwell provides a clear strategy for creating coherent and workable relationships among these design components, highlighting the key design issues to deal with and describing the main considerations that inform your decisions about these issues. These design issues include clarifying the purpose of your study; creating a theoretical context for the research; formulating research questions; developing a relationship with the people you are studying; making decisions about sampling, data collection, and analysis; and assessing validity threats and alternative explanations to your study′s conclusions. The author also explains how to make the transition from your research design to your research proposal, providing an explicit model for the structure of a qualitative proposal that is based on the design of your study. Taking an exceptional approach to research design, Qualitative Research Design provides detailed exercises for applying its information and guidelines to your study.

Joseph A. Maxwell is an Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Education at George Mason University, where he teaches courses on research design and methods. He is the author of "Qualitative Research Design: An Interactive Approach" (Sage, 1996), as well as papers on qualitative methodology, mixed method research, socio-cultural theory, and medical education. He has also worked extensively in applied settings. He has given seminars and workshops on teaching qualitative research methods and on using qualitative methods in various applied fields, and has been an invited speaker at conferences and universities in the U.S., Puerto Rico, Europe, and China. He has a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Chicago.