Designing Qualitative Research - Tapa dura

All qualitative researchers have to justify their research programme to a sceptical decison-maker - a dissertion committee, funding agency or government body - at some point. How do qualitative researchers overcome scepticism and more importantly create a viable research programme in the first place? This practical, step-by-step guide addresses this issue. Drawing from the experiences of scholars, students and practitioners from a variety of fields, the authors explain how to produce a strong, convincing qualitative research proposal.

Catherine Marshall is Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Formerly a teacher in Rhode Island, her studies and career moves include doctoral studies at University of California, Santa Barbara, a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, Los Angeles, and faculty positions at the University of Pennsylvania and Vanderbilt University before moving in 1991 to Chapel Hill. Her teaching and research interests include the use an interdisciplinary approach to analyze school cultures, state policy systems, and the professional development of adults working in organizations. She has published extensively about the politics of education, qualitative methodology, and women's access to careers as well as about the socialization, language, and values in educational leadership. She is the author of Reframing Educational Politics for Social Justice (Allyn & Bacon, 2004); Leadership for Social Justice: Making Revolutions in Education, Culture and Education Policy in the American States (Allyn & Bacon, 2005); and Designing Qualitative Research, Fifth Edition (SAGE, 2010), as well as a number of other books and numerous journal articles.