This book provides invaluable guidance for thinking through and planning a qualitative study. Rather than offering recipes for specific techniques, master storyteller Robert Stake stimulates readers to discover "how things work" in organizations, programs, communities, and other systems. Topics range from identifying a research question to selecting methods, gathering data, interpreting and analyzing the results, and producing a well-thought-through written report. In-depth examples from a...

Examining situational complexity is a vital part of social and behavioral science research. This engaging text provides an effective process for studying multiple cases--such as sets of teachers, staff development sessions, or clinics operating in different locations--within one complex program. The process also can be used to investigate broadly occurring phenomena without programmatic links, such as leadership or sibling rivalry. Readers learn to design, analyze, and report studies that ...

With expert advice from the author and real-life experiences from students, this book shows you how to go from the ideas of research to the practicalities of designing, conducting, and writing about your research yourself.What’s new in this edition:· Fully interactive digital field guide including video tutorials and real data to practice with· An improved structure that takes you step-by-step form start to finish· An overview and practical guidance on mixed...

Designed for novice as well as more experienced researchers, Reason & Rigor presents conceptual frameworks as a mechanism for aligning literature review, research design, and methodology. The book explores the conceptual framework—defined as both a process and a product—that helps to direct and ground researchers as they work through common research challenges. Focusing on published studies on a range of topics and employing both quantitative and qualitative methods, the u...

The purpose of this book is to share, in rich detail, an understanding of how it feels and what it means to do qualitative research, and to provide support for doctoral students who choose this form of inquiry for their dissertation research.

Qualitative Research Methods is a comprehensive, all-inclusive resource for the theory and practice of qualitative/ethnographic research methodology.Serves as a “how-to” guide for qualitative/ethnographic research, detailing how to design a project, conduct interviews and focus groups, interpret and analyze data, and represent it in a compelling mannerDemonstrates how qualitative data can be systematically utilized to address pressing personal, organization...

Drawing on interdisciplinary research, as well as the experiences of parents of multilingual children, this book walks parents through the multilingual reading and writing process from infancy to adolescence. It identifies essential skills at each developmental stage and proposes effective strategies that facilitate multiliteracy, in particular, heritage-language literacy development in the home environment.

It is now nearly thirty years since sociocultural theories of learning created great excitement and debate amongst those concerned with learning in diverse contexts. Since that time significant advances have been made in sociocultural theory and research. Various sociocultural approaches to the understanding of learning (for example, sociocultural psychology, sociocultural discourse, cultural historical activity theory) have been developed and consolidated and new challenges are currently ...

This is the first research methods book to focus entirely on physical education and youth sport. It guides the reader through the whole research process; from the first steps to completion of a dissertation or practice-based project, and introduces key topics such as:formulating a research questionqualitative approachesquantitative approachesmixed method researchliterature reviewcase studiessurvey, intervie...

This book offers students a comprehensive, theoretical, and practical guide to communication theory. Croucher defines the various perspectives on communication theory—the social scientific, interpretive, and critical approaches—and then takes on the theories themselves, with topics including interpersonal communication, organizational communication, intercultural communication, persuasion, critical and rhetorical theory and other key concepts. Each theory chapter includes a sample undergra...

CALL Research Perspectives creates a foundation for the study and practice of computer-assisted language learning and provides an overview of ways to conceptualize and to conduct research in CALL. Its core assumptions are that all approaches to research have a place, and that researchers, teachers, and students all have a role to play in the study of computer-enhanced language learning.This is not a how-to-do-research text. Written by top researchers in the field, it offer...

Collaborative Therapy: Relationships and Conversations That Make a Difference provides in-depth accounts of the everyday practice of postmodern collaborative therapy, vibrantly illustrating how dialogic conversation can transform lives, relationships, and entire communities. Pioneers and leading professionals from diverse disciplines, contexts, and cultures describe in detail what they do in their therapy and training practices, including their work with psychosis, incarceration, ...