Month: September 2016

Writing as a social practice

Writing is a task that is usually thought of as a solitary practice. One need only go to a coffee shop in a university town to see individuals hunched over laptops reading and writing to observe some of the work that goes into completion of the numerous term papers, theses and dissertations completed each year … Continue reading Writing as a social practice

Qualitative Research Journals

There are a growing number of journals that publish qualitative studies in particular disciplines. One of the oldest of these is Qualitative Sociology, established in 1978. Since that time, journals have been founded that focus on research in education (International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, founded in 1988), health (Qualitative Health Research, founded in … Continue reading Qualitative Research Journals

Doing autoethnography

Doing autoethnography means writing a story about oneself, doesn’t it? If that is the case, it should not be hard. Right? In fact, doing autoethnography requires quite a few skills. Among these are: The ability to write evocatively and engagingly. Keen skills for research. This involves doing fieldwork and research in the library. Fieldwork might … Continue reading Doing autoethnography

Getting started with qualitative inquiry

Newcomers to qualitative inquiry encounter numerous new terms. There are so many approaches to doing qualitative inquiry. Further, authors frequently use terms in different ways. What are ways to navigate the maze of beginning to learn about qualitative inquiry? First, it helps to build a scaffold, a strategy recommended by Michael Crotty (1998). In qualitative … Continue reading Getting started with qualitative inquiry