In an attempt to cope with the profusion of tools and techniques for qualitative methods, texts for students have tended to respond in the following two ways: "how to" or "why to." In contrast, this book takes on both tasks to give students a more complete picture of the field. An Invitation to Qualitative Fieldwork is a helpful guide, a compendium of tips, and a workbook for skills. Whether for a class, as a reference book, or something to return to before, during, and after data-collection, An Invitation to Qualitative Fieldwork is a new kind of qualitative handbook.
In an attempt to cope with the profusion of tools and techniques for qualitative methods, texts for students have tended to respond in the following two ways: "how to" or "why to." In contrast, this book takes on both tasks to give students a more complete picture of the field. An Invitation to Qualitative Fieldwork is a helpful guide, a compendium of tips, and a workbook for skills. Whether for a class, as a reference book, or something to return to before, during, and after data-collection, An Invitation to Qualitative Fieldwork is a new kind of qualitative handbook.
Social work profession has developed five specializations for education, training and practice. These five specializations cover all the fields of social work for employment and self-employment. Students are seen undergoing fieldwork training in their respective specialized fields without any reference of relevant literature for all these years. They are seen learning in the practical situations only with the help of oral instructions of the faculty and agency supervisors. The present book would be useful to impart field work training in the specialized fields work training in the specialized fields which would assist the schools of social work to prepare the perfect trained manpower to serve the NGOs, Gos and Cos, organizations, institutions, offices and the society at large.
A Guide to Qualitative Field Research provides readers with clear, practical, and specific instructions for conducting qualitative research in the field. In the expanded Third Edition, Carol A. Bailey gives increased attention to the early and last stages of field research, often the most difficult: selecting a topic, deciding upon the purpose of your research, and writing the final paper, all in her signature reader-friendly writing style. This edition features research examples from graduate and undergraduate students to make examples meaningful to fellow students; a new “Putting It All Together” feature, with examples of how different parts of the research process interact; and more emphasis on the “nuts and bolts” of research, such as what to include in an informed consent form, a proposal, and the final paper. New to this Edition: Objectives features help students focus on the skills they need to develop and can be used as the basis for evaluating whether the skills have been achieved. Expanded coverage of research in virtual settings ensures that readers get a well-rounded understanding of both in-person and digital research methods. Examples of research conducted by students help students generate ideas for their own research, provides concrete examples of the material discussed in the guide, and illustrates that field research is not just done by advanced scholars.
How do you gain entry into a research setting? What tricks are there to learning the rules of the community without alienating the people you came to study? How are good relations maintained with informants? What happens after you leave the field? In Experiencing Fieldwork top ethnographers address these and other questions, bring fieldwork alive for the reader and provide invaluable advice for those entering the field.
This hands-on guide takes students from start-to-finish through the research process while showcasing the complexities and interrelationships of different methods, schools of thought, and associated analytical strategies. Encouraging students to think of qualitative research as a flexible, cyclical process rather than a linear one, this book offers a panoramic strategy and dynamic approach to qualitative research that accommodates the fluid nature of research and accounts for lessons learned through lived experience. With an emphasis on the analysis stage—within case, across case, and the dialogue between these insights and existing literature—it uses concrete applications to show how your methodological decisions translate into practice. It covers: Forming, defending, and evaluating research questions Choosing a research approach Ensuring ethically sound research Collecting quality data Analyzing data in layers Reporting research results Through a conversational tone that unpacks key vocabulary and acts as a companion supervisor, this book equips you to traverse every step of the qualitative research journey.
Gaining access is a critical part of doing research, not only because one must 'get in' in order to gain information, but also because the quality of access affects what information is available to the researcher. Despite its importance, the literature on qualitative methods has not yet provided an extensive treatment of this issue. Gaining Access fills the void by offering useful, prescriptive advice on how to successfully enter different field settings for interviewing and observation. The detailed methodological guidelines presented by the authors are reinforced in a set of case studies by expert researchers from diverse disciplinary backgrounds on a wide variety of formal and informal settings, from working with ethnic minorities in Bosnia to studying prisons, sex workers, welfare offices, and the clergy. This book will provide useful ideas to experienced qualitative researchers as well as invaluable advice to novices conducting their first study.
This lively, practical text presents a fresh and comprehensive approach to doing qualitative research. The book offers a unique balance of theory and clear-cut choices for customizing every phase of a qualitative study. A scholarly mix of classic and contemporary studies from multiple disciplines provides compelling, field-based examples of the full range of qualitative approaches. Readers learn about adaptive ways of designing studies, collecting data, analyzing data, and reporting findings. Key aspects of the researcher's craft are addressed, such as fieldwork options, the five phases of data analysis (with and without using computer-based software), and how to incorporate the researcher's “declarative” and “reflective” selves into a final report. Ideal for graduate-level courses, the text includes:* Discussions of ethnography, grounded theory, phenomenology, feminist research, and other approaches.* Instructions for creating a study bank to get a new study started.* End-of-chapter exercises and a semester-long, field-based project.* Quick study boxes, research vignettes, sample studies, and a glossary.* Previews for sections within chapters, and chapter recaps.* Discussion of the place of qualitative research among other social science methods, including mixed methods research.
Sharpen your tools -- How to formulate a question -- How do you choose a site? -- Talking to people -- Hanging out -- Ethics in research -- Comparing -- Dealing with documents -- Interpreting it and writing it up
