This case study is based on qualitative research carried out with four 4-year-old children attending a kindergarten in Malta. The aim of the study was to first observe children playing without adult intervention to see if, and how, they would engage with mathematical ideas as they played. In the second part of the study, I interacted with the…

This case study describes the process I engaged in to plan for and implement a design-based research project in an effort to explore what critical language study looked like in practice as well as how teachers and students responded to this instructional approach. In this case study, I focus, specifically, on the choice I made to take on the role…

Beginning researchers get an overview of qualitative research through a concise look at the practice of conducting research and the theory and debates that keep qualitative inquiry vibrant. Ideal for introducing the novice researcher to the theory and practice of qualitative research, this text opens students to the diverse possibilities within…

During the summer of 2013, four faculty members conceived of a project to explore diversity through a different approach. The project would include two phases: an arts-based mixed-medium phase and a duoethnography phase. A duoethnography consists of intentional, critical conversations between two or more co-researchers to explore a concept or…

This case study describes how I used multiple methods to investigate learning in a classroom where I was also the teacher. Any classroom contains a lot of interconnected activity, and a lot of learning these days is mediated through computers and other digital devices. I explain how and why I used multiple methods to develop a vivid, rich, and…

Our experience of children drawing and talking together in the classroom led us to wonder whether their narrative was related to the task they were engaged in or whether it was purely social talk. A pilot study highlighted important issues. In 2003, therefore, we embarked on a 6-year longitudinal project, acting as participant observers focusing…

In this case study, I critically evaluate a research project that aimed to understand and disrupt processes of pathologization and exclusion experienced by young Black women within an inner-London 16-19 college. I detail the emergence of this project, its format, and its methods with reference to two epistemological traditions: Black feminist…

This case study discusses qualitative fieldwork among ethnic minority university students in Malaysia. Active marginalization is taking place in this country due to the enforced differential treatment of ethnic groups, favoring the ethnic Malay majority. In this context, students are forced to choose university education as a conscious means of…

This case is based on the research project I conducted for my PhD dissertation. The research objectives were to examine the process of cultural knowledge creation and to address the role of social capital in this process. While many studies discuss global social capital and its role in the development of global mindset and expatriate adjustments…

In 1999, I planned a part-time PhD study to examine the effects of early art education on cultural development in English schools for the blind. This study formed part of a larger grounded theory on the understanding and creation of what are thought to be the visual arts by blind adults and children. The main fieldwork for this study was conducted…

Since 2004, I have provided technical assistance to a neighborhood association in a residential, campus-adjacent neighborhood located in a small college town in a geographically isolated coal-mining region of the United States. The neighborhood is shared by year-round residents, most of whom are older adults who have no affiliation with the…

Being a "student" has been and remains a highly desirable status for young people and their families in Kyrgyzstan. "Giving their children education" (dat detyam obrazovaniye)--meaning "higher education"--has become an imperative for many parents, even in a time of serious economic and social decline. The numbers of…

Chapters in this volume provide an introduction to qualitative research in higher education, organizing the discussion around four central themes. Part 1, Situating Ourselves and Our Inquiry, contains: (1) Objectivity in Educational Research (Elliot Eisner); (2) Truth in Trouble (Kenneth Gergen); (3) Beyond Translation: Truth and Rigoberta Menchu…

This book, an attempt to present a balanced view of qualitative methodology and research, is structured around classic texts by methodological pioneers. It examines these key premises in these texts. Chapters are: (1) "Strangeness and Familiarity"; (2) "From Over-Rapport to Intimacy and Autoethnography"; (3) "Whose Side Are We On?"; (4)…

This book describes several projects addressing experiences as women educators in defining the positional perspectives related to the understanding and reconceptualization of teaching and curriculum. Each project faces the dilemma of imposition in the authors' work with student teachers, teenage mothers, children of color, community members, and…