It is a necessity for a researcher to ensure that the validity and reliability of the study is met to prove a discovery. However, there are still qualitative researchers who are still reckless and do not emphasize the concept of validity and reliability when designing, collecting, and analysing the research findings. The quality of a qualitative…

This article examines an important and thorny problem in interview research: How to assess whether what people say motivated their actions actually did so? We ask three questions: What specific challenges are at play? How have researchers addressed them? And how should those strategies be evaluated? We argue that such research faces at least five…

Following the tradition of Chicana/Latina feminist nuevas teorias and methodologies, I offer walking pláticas as a qualitative research methodology that honors the brown body and facultad to examine our relationship to the spaces we traverse, live within and mutually shape. Walking pláticas is a reclamation of research methodologies that dismantle…

This popular text, now in its fifth edition, provides step-by-step guidance for new and experienced researchers who want to use interviewing as a research method. This user-friendly guide explains the rationale for interviewing and the complexity of selecting interview participants, important interviewing techniques, and how to work with the…

When conducting interviews with multilinguals, researchers make (often invisible) decisions about the interview language(s). Whilst the research design may require a particular approach in some cases, linguists generally recommend giving participants a choice or interviewing them in their first language. There are ethical and methodological…

In this paper, we explore the methodological implications of conducting qualitative interviews when researchers and participants come from different social classes. Singling out class on its own terms, rather than considering it as an auxiliary structural factor, we examine the unique challenges that arise during cross-class interviews. Such…

With today's technology, Extension professionals have a variety of tools available for program evaluation. This article describes an innovative platform called VoiceThread that has been used in many classrooms but also is useful for conducting virtual focus group research. I explain how this tool can be used to collect qualitative participant…

Although instruction on meiosis is repeated many times during the undergraduate curriculum, many students show poor comprehension even as upper-level biology majors. We propose that the difficulty lies in the complexity of understanding DNA, which we explain through a new model, the DNA triangle. The "DNA triangle" integrates three…

The prospective associations between negative life events (NLEs) and adolescent alcohol use was examined using the Youth Asset Study. Participants (n = 1040 adolescents, mean age = 15.8 years) completed annual interviews which included a life events scale and alcohol use in the last 30 days. Family structure and parent education were assessed as…

This tool is designed for early career STEM education researchers and developers to offer tips for pursuing careers in academia. The advice largely comes from National Science Foundation-funded awardees who have graciously shared information about their own career pathways, work experiences, and perspectives.

Reflecting recent knowledge and developments in the field, this very practical, easy-to-use guide emphasizes learning how to do case study research--from the first step of deciding whether a case study is the way to go to the last step of verifying and confirming findings before disseminating them. The authors show students how to determine an…

Beginning researchers get an overview of qualitative research through a concise look at the practice of conducting research and the theory and debates that keep qualitative inquiry vibrant. Ideal for introducing the novice researcher to the theory and practice of qualitative research, this text opens students to the diverse possibilities within…

While engaged in a research project involving the use of visual methods with children, the authors discovered that there are many ethical considerations beyond what could have been predicted at the outset. Some of these considerations are important with respect to research with children in general, while others arise more particularly when using…

Qualitative research methods have long set an example of rich description, in which data and researchers' hermeneutics work together to inform readers of findings in specific contexts. Among published works, insight into the analytical process is most often represented in the form of methodological propositions or research results. This paper…

Institutional researchers (IRs) are often asked to conduct focus groups as an efficient way to address an institutional concern or problem. Typically, IR professionals depend on external consultants and specialists to conduct these group interviews for them; however, due to recent resource constraints (staffing, budgets), they are increasingly…