A Student's Guide to Methodology: Justifying Enquiry

The Third Edition of this hugely popular text provides students with straightforward principles and frameworks for understanding methodology. Peter Clough and Cathy Nutbrown are adept at making methodology meaningful for beginners and more advanced readers alike. Their book clearly demonstrates how methodology impacts upon every stage of the research process, and gives readers all of the tools that they need to understand it.

New to this edition are the following:

• New boxes and guidance on research ethics in every chapter
• More international examples and perspectives
• Up to date coverage of online research methods
• More examples from real students
• A new companion website, featuring Powerpoint slides for lecturers

The authors take an applied approach and every chapter contains a variety of practical examples from real research. Readers are encouraged to reflect on their own practice at every step, meaning that the book remains extremely relevant throughout. It will be invaluable for all students who are doing a dissertation or taking a research methods module in education, the social sciences, business and health.

Peter Clough is Professor of Education at the University of Brighton. Often using innovative, arts-based qualitative methodologies, his research is concerned particularly with the inclusion of marginalised voices, and spans all age phases. Among his many publications are Inclusion in the Early Years (Sage), and Narratives and Fictions in Educational Research (OUP). Recent research includes the Family Literacy in Prisons project in collaboration with the Prison Advice and Care Trust. 

Cathy Nutbrown is President of Early Education and Professor of Education in the School of Education at the University of Sheffield. Her research over the last 30 years, has focussed on young children’s learning and work with parents to support young children’s literacy development.  She won an ESRC Award for Research with Outstanding Impact on Society and a Nursery World Lifetime Achievement Award. She is author of over 150 publications including Early Literacy Work with Families (with Hannon and Morgan, Sage, 2005), Early Childhood Educational Research (Sage, 2019), and Home Learning Environments for Young Children (with Clough, Davies and Hannon, Sage, 2022).