Qualitative research is a model for systematic, data-based inquiry. It has been used widely in the social sciences, and it has a growing acceptance in educational research. Its purpose is to describe and understand a particular, bounded social setting. The differences between quantitative and qualitative research involve the methods employed at the tactical level and the assumptions held by the investigator at the strategic level. As a model for inquiry, qualitative research is interpretive. A key assumption holds that it is not possible to understand people and their actions unless they are taken within the whole context. Qualitative research sometimes is called "naturalistic" because it is not interventionist, and it involves observations of settings in their natural state. Suggestions for avoiding subject falsification include: (1) being aware of risk and not letting down guard; (2) remembering that most dissembling is triggered by perceived threat; (3) remembering that faking is difficult to sustain over time; and (4) following procedures for cross-checking subject accounts. (BAE)