Navigating the doctoral journey

There are numerous texts that provide a guide for students to how to navigate a doctoral program and how supervisors might work with doctoral students. For example, Pat Thomson and Melanie Walker have edited separate handbooks (2010; 2010) for doctoral students and their supervisors. One recent text by Lene Tanggaard and Charlotte Wegener (2017) provides … Continue reading Navigating the doctoral journey

Recently published qualitative studies

One of the bonuses of teaching qualitative research is getting to read examples of  how researchers design and conduct very different studies using different theoretical approaches. This past semester, I used several recently published studies with one of my qualitative research classes. These three qualitative studies demonstrate recent studies that use narrative inquiry, phenomenology, and … Continue reading Recently published qualitative studies

Conducting qualitative interviews: The gap between prescriptions and practice

Over the past year I have been examining archival records from the administration of the Federal Writers’ Project, a work relief scheme undertaken as part of the Works Progress Administration in the 1930s in the United States. I have been struck by the disparities in how different people enacted instructions provided to them with respect … Continue reading Conducting qualitative interviews: The gap between prescriptions and practice

Recently published qualitative studies

Below I provide introductions to recently published books that teach readers about human experiences from people whose voices have seldom been examined in scholarly literature.  In each study, researchers who were not members of the communities examined worked to collaborate with others to tell the stories of people who have frequently been marginalized in academic … Continue reading Recently published qualitative studies

Using Screencasts in Teaching Qualitative Research

In the final course of the graduate Interdisciplinary Certificate in Qualitative Studies program at the University of Georgia, students learn about best practices for teaching qualitative research. One of the assignments is for students to teach a qualitative research concept of their choice by creating a screencast that could be integrated into a larger lesson … Continue reading Using Screencasts in Teaching Qualitative Research

Getting started with grant writing

This week, I welcome guest blogger, Judith Brauer, a Ph.D. student in the Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methodologies program at the University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia. In this post, Judith discusses the process entailed in writing proposals to seek funding for research, and provides further resources.   If you are a graduate student or work in … Continue reading Getting started with grant writing

Influential qualitative researchers: Laurel Richardson

Sociologist Laurel Richardson is well-known for her writing about writing. In numerous texts, she provides plenty for students of qualitative research to think about (Richardson, 1990; Richardson, 1994b; Richardson & St. Pierre, 2005), along with practical suggestions for how writing is a “method of inquiry.” Richardson also proposes the use of “creative analytic practices” or … Continue reading Influential qualitative researchers: Laurel Richardson

What do journal editors want?

When a manuscript is rejected by a journal editor, it is easy to feel discouraged, and even give up on a manuscript altogether. Don't despair! Another question to ask is:  what is it that journal editors want? In fact, rather than being a mystery, there is much insight into what journal editors want to be … Continue reading What do journal editors want?

Recruiting participants for a qualitative research study

How do qualitative researchers locate potential participants for a study? What approaches might be used to recruit people? Clearly the easiest way to recruit people is to ask people you already know to participate in your study. This is potentially fraught with difficulty, however, since this is known as “convenience sampling”, which is typically perceived … Continue reading Recruiting participants for a qualitative research study