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Designing Qualitative Research
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Designing Qualitative Research

Seventh Edition
June 2021 | 344 pages | SAGE Publications, Inc
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Offering clear, easy-to-understand guidance on designing qualitative research, this fully updated Seventh Edition of Marshall and Rossman’s bestselling text retains the useful examples, tools, and vignettes that makes it such an outstanding resource. The book takes students from selecting a research genre through building a conceptual framework, data collection and interpretation, and arguing the merits of the proposal. Now featuring a new co-author, Gerardo L. Blanco, this edition includes more on the history and new emerging genres of qualitative inquiry, as well as a more sustained and deeper focus on social media and other digital applications in conducting qualitative research. New application activities provide opportunities for students to try out ideas, while timely vignettes illustrate the methodological challenges posed by the intellectual, ethical, political, and technological advances affecting society.

PowerPoints to accompany this text are available on an instructor site at: https://edge.sagepub.com/marshall7e
 
List of Tables
 
List of Figures
 
List of Vignettes
 
List of Application Activities
 
Preface to the Seventh Edition
 
About the Authors
 
Chapter 1. Introduction
Considerations

 
The Challenges

 
Developing an Argument

 
Overview of the Book

 
Opportunities and Challenges

 
Further Reading

 
Key Concepts

 
 
Chapter 2. Qualitative Research Genres
Canonical Genres

 
Critical Genres

 
Opportunities and Challenges

 
Further Reading

 
Key Concepts

 
 
Chapter 3. Credibility, Trustworthiness, and Ethics
Trustworthiness

 
Bringing Ethics, Relationships, and Identity Into Trustworthiness

 
Researcher Identity, Voice, and Relationships

 
Field Notes

 
Ethics and Institutional Reviews

 
Opportunities and Challenges

 
Further Reading

 
Key Concepts

 
 
Chapter 4. The What of the Study: Building the Conceptual Framework
Sections of the Proposal

 
Building the Conceptual Framework: Topic, Purpose, and Significance

 
Literature Review and Critique of Related Research

 
Opportunities and Challenges

 
Further Reading

 
Key Concepts

 
 
Chapter 5. The How of the Study: Building the Research Design
Meeting the Challenge

 
Justifying Qualitative Research

 
The Qualitative Genre and Overall Approach

 
The Setting, Site, Population, or Phenomenon

 
Within Sites: Sampling People, Actions, Events, and Processes

 
Personal Biography, Positionality, Ongoing Relationships, and Reciprocity

 
Time and Resources: Making Some Tough Choices

 
Opportunities and Challenges

 
Further Reading

 
Key Concepts

 
 
Chapter 6. Basic Data Collection Methods
Observation

 
In-Depth Interviewing

 
Life Histories and Narrative Inquiry

 
Opportunities and Challenges

 
Further Reading

 
Key Concepts

 
 
Chapter 7. Specialized and Focused Data Collection Methods
Collecting Content and Text From Documents and Other Media

 
Using the Internet and Digital Applications

 
Multimodal Approaches

 
Interaction Analysis

 
Hypotheticals

 
Dilemma Analysis

 
Games and Simulations

 
Combining Data Collection Methods

 
Opportunities and Challenges

 
Further Reading

 
Key Concepts

 
 
Chapter 8. Managing, Analyzing, and Interpreting Data
Recording, Managing, Transcribing, and Translating Data

 
Data Analysis

 
Generic Data Analysis Strategies

 
Analytic Procedures

 
Challenges and Opportunities

 
Further Reading

 
Key Concepts

 
 
Chapter 9. Arguing the Merits of Your Proposal and Moving Forward
Criteria of Soundness

 
The Essential Qualitativeness and Value of the Research

 
Demonstrating Precedents

 
Envisioning the Final Report, the Dissertation, the Book, or Something Else

 
Opportunities and Challenges

 
A Final Word

 
Further Reading

 
Key Concepts

 
 
References
 
Index

Supplements

Instructor Resource Site
edge.sagepub.com/marshall7e

Online resources included with this text

The online resources for your text are available via the password-protected Instructor Resource Site, which offers access to all text-specific resources, including editable, chapter-specific PowerPoint® slides and figures and tables from the book.

This is an excellent resource for everyone embarking on qualitative research. I highly recommend this book to students who are planning to undertake qualitative studies.

Dr Kumaresan Cithambaram
School of Nursing & Human Sciences, Dublin City University
February 7, 2022
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Key features

NEW TO THIS EDITION:

  • New coverage of emerging contemporary issues, methods, and considerations, such as the movements for racial justice, the coronavirus pandemic, the climate crisis, and the U.S. presidential election.
  • A sustained and deeper focus on the burgeoning use of social media and internet applications in conducting qualitative research brings the book up to date.
  • New questions for the new century—one now dominated by social networking—explore the issues and design dilemmas of today’s qualitative researchers.
  • New vignettes cover such topics as researchers’ challenges in designing research with homeless, refugee, and immigrant populations; the interplay between ethics and trustworthiness; and exquisite sensitivity in research on sexual harassment.
  • Coverage of ethics and trustworthiness is now earlier in the book (Chapter 3), placing these key attributes front and center.
  • New suggestions for planning for data analysis at the proposal stage and for managing analysis in writing final reports.
  • New Some of Our Favorites listings at the end of each chapter’s Further Reading section provides recommended references for further exploration.
  • The advances and challenges presented by new technologies and provocative, creative modes of presentation are incorporated throughout.
  • All references have been updated, and new scholarly works are cited throughout.
  • An accompanying Instructor website includes PowerPoint slides.
KEY FEATURES:
  • Ways that research can be attuned to policy and practice—from problem identification to formatting the presentation of findings to the explicit focus on trustworthiness, credibility, and ethics—prepare students to do their own research.
  • The personal, ethical, and political dilemmas that the researcher may face are emphasized throughout the book.
  • Examples and vignettes are current, especially in terms of cross-national research and the issues that arise.
  • Extended discussions cover strategies researchers can use to address the challenges posed by postmodernists, feminists, and critical race theorists, as well as others who interrogate historical qualitative inquiry.
  • Inspiring potential “Aha!” moments and opportunities to do research in close connection with people and communities bring topics to life.

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