Preface: Is this book for me? xvi
1 Developing contextual research that matters 1
Overview and introduction 2
Three core qualitative concepts: self‐reflexivity, context, and thick description 2
Self‐reflexivity 2
Context 3
Thick description 3
How qualitative research is distinct from quantitative research 4
A phronetic approach: doing qualitative research that matters 6
Strengths of qualitative research 7
Qualitative research is useful in a variety of jobs, settings, and disciplinary foci 8
Exercise 1.1 Interviewing a friend, colleague, or classmate 9
Moving from ideas to sites, settings, and participants 11
Sources of research ideas 12
Exercise 1.2 Field/site/participant brainstorm 13
Consider This 1.1 Sources of research ideas 14
Compatibility, yield, suitability, and feasibility 15
Researcher’s Notepad 1.1 Negotiating challenges with rare or hidden populations 17
Tips and Tools 1.1 Factoring the ease of fieldwork 18
Moving toward a research question 18
Researcher’s Notepad 1.2 Published examples of research questions 20
Considering collaboration 20
Exercise 1.3 Early research question brainstorm 21
Following, Forgetting, and Improvising 22
Exercise 1.4 Three potential field sites and/or participant groups 23
In summary 23
2 Entering the conversation of qualitative research 25
Inductive/emic, deductive/etic, and abductive/iterative approaches 26
The funnel metaphor 29
Sensitizing concepts 29
Exercise 2.1 A quick dip into the field 30
A complex focus on the whole 30
Naturalistic inquiry 31
Thick description 31
Bricolage 32
A sampling of theoretical approaches that commonly use qualitative methods 32
Symbolic interactionism 33
Consider This 2.1 How do I know myself? 35
Structuration theory 36
Consider This 2.2 Why am I standing in line? 37
Exercise 2.2 Action vs. structure 38
Sensemaking 38
Historical matters and current conversations in qualitative research 40
The early days 40
Ethically problematic research and the creation of the IRB 41
Recent history in academia and the private sector 41
Current conversations: ethics, post‐qualitative research, big data 42
In summary 44
Exercise 2.3 Research problems and questions 45
3 Paradigmatic reflections and qualitative research territories 48
Paradigms: positivist, interpretive, critical, postmodern 49
Positivist and post‐positivist paradigms 49
Interpretive paradigm 51
Exercise 3.1 Verstehen/understanding 52
Critical paradigm 52
Postmodern and other “post” paradigms 55
Consider This 3.1 Whose stylistic rules? 57
Paradigmatic complexities and intersections 58
Exercise 3.2 Assumptions of paradigmatic approaches 59
Key territories and approaches of qualitative research 61
Case study 61
Grounded theory 62
Ethnography and ethnography of communication 63
Phenomenology 65
Participatory action research 67
Narrative inquiry and autoethnography 69
Creative, performative, and arts‐based approaches 70
In summary 71
4 Research design: Sampling, research proposals, ethics, and IRB 75
Planning the data collection: fieldwork, interviews, texts, and visuals 76
The value of fieldwork and “participant witnessing” 76
The value of interviews 78
Consider This 4.1 Yin and yang: taijitu 79
The value of textual analysis and cultural studies 80
The value of visual and arts‐based materials 81
Developing a sampling plan: who, what, where, how, and when 82
Random samples and representative samples 82
Convenience/opportunistic samples 83
Maximum variation samples 83
Snowball samples 84
Theoretical‐construct samples 84
Typical, extreme, deviant, and critical incident samples 84
Tips and Tools 4.1 Sampling plans 86
How and when to choose your sample 86
Ethics and institutional review boards (IRB) 87
Research instruments, informed consent, and confidentiality 88
Different levels of ethical risk and IRB review 89
The quirks of IRB 90
Creating a research proposal 92
Tips and Tools 4.2 Research proposal components 92
Title, abstract, and key words 93
Introduction/rationale 94
Exercise 4.1 Conceptual cocktail party 95
Literature review/conceptual framework 96
Research questions/foci 97
Methodology and methods 98
Tips and Tools 4.3 What belongs in a qualitative methods section? 98
Budget/timeline 99
Tips and Tools 4.4 What to include in a qualitative project budget 99
Projected outcomes 100
In summary 100
5 Negotiating access and exploring the scene 104
Confessional tales that illustrate common challenges of access and consent 105
Riding my mentor’s coattails: Citywest 911 emergency call‐takers 105
Becoming a full participant: the Radiant Sun cruise ship 106
Entering a closed organization: Women’s Minimum and Nouveau Jail 107
Accessing an elite interviewee population surrounding a delicate topic 108
Practical considerations of negotiating access 110
Do some homework before approaching the scene 110
Researcher’s Notepad 5.1 Contact information log 111
Please don’t reject me! Seeking research permission 111
Researcher’s Notepad 5.2 Sample access proposal 114
Virtual “access” versus textual harvesting 115
Negotiating access for interviews 116
Abandoning the ego, engaging embodiment, embracing liminality 117
Exercise 5.1 Self‐identity audit 119
Navigating those first research interactions 119
Researcher’s Notepad 5.3 Initial reactions speak volumes 121
Relationship building with participants 121
Seeking informed consent in the scene 122
Tips and Tools 5.1 Navigating the beginning of the qualitative research project 123
Exploratory methods 123
Briefing interviews and participant information table 123
Researcher’s Notepad 5.4 Participant information table 124
Member diaries 124
Maps and narrative tours 125
Exercise 5.2 Map and narrative tour 127
In summary 127
6 Field roles, fieldnotes, and field focus 129
Field roles and standpoints 130
Complete participant 131
Play participant 132
Focused witness 133
Consider This 6.1 When playing is uncomfortable 134
Complete witness 135
Visual and virtual aspects of fieldwork 136
Writing fieldnotes: raw records, headnotes, and formal fieldnotes 137
Raw records and headnotes 138
Exercise 6.1 Taking raw records in the scene 140
Formal fieldnotes 140
Researcher’s Notepad 6.1 Fieldnote header 141
Qualities of good fieldnotes 142
Economy versus detail 142
Showing (and using dialogue) versus telling 142
Making the familiar strange and the strange familiar 143
Noticing the data as evidence 144
Analytic reflections 145
Consider This 6.2 Noticing the data as evidence 145
Fieldnote wrap‐up 146
Tips and Tools 6.1 Fieldnote writing tips 147
Focusing the data and using heuristic devices 147
Exercise 6.2 Fieldnotes 149
Following, Forgetting, and Improvising 150
In summary 152
7 Interview planning and design: Structuring, wording, and questioning 155
Self‐reflexivity in interviews 156
Exercise 7.1 Self‐reflexive interviewing 157
Interview structure, type, and stance 157
Level of structure in interviews 157
Interview types: ethnographic, informant, respondent, narrative, discursive 158
Interview stances: naïveté, collaborative, pedagogical, responsive, confrontational 160
Interview guide and question wording 161
Tips and Tools 7.1 Interview structure, types, and stances 162
Wording good questions 162
Exercise 7.2 Strategizing interviews 162
Researcher’s Notepad 7.1 Research questions versus interview questions 163
Interview questions: types, purposes, examples, and sequencing 164
Opening the interview 164
Tips and Tools 7.2 Interview question types 165
Generative questions 166
Directive questions 168
Closing the interview 169
Interview question wrap‐up 170
Visual, embodied, and experiential approaches 170
Researcher’s Notepad 7.2 Mobile peripatetic interviews 173
How many interviews are “enough”? 174
In summary 175
Exercise 7.3 Interview schedule or guide 176
8 Interview practice: Embodied, mediated, and focus‐group approaches 181
Conducting face‐to‐face interviews 182
Interview logistics 182
Why good interviewing is so much more than asking questions 184
Technologically mediated approaches to interviewing 186
Strengths of mediated interviews 186
Disadvantages of mediated interviews 188
Tips and Tools 8.1 Mediated interviews: advantages and disadvantages 189
The focus‐group interview 190
The value of focus groups 190
When to use focus groups 191
Planning focus groups 193
Facilitating the focus group 193
Tips and Tools 8.2 Logistics of formal focus groups 194
Overcoming common focus group and interviewing challenges 196
Exercise 8.1 Practicing focus groups 197
Researcher’s Notepad 8.1 Remedial–pedagogical interviews 199
Transcribing 201
Exercise 8.2 Role‐playing interview challenges in a fishbowl 202
Tips and Tools 8.3 Common transcribing symbols 204
In summary 206
9 Data analysis basics: A phronetic iterative approach 208
A phronetic iterative analysis approach 209
Organizing and preparing the data 212
Coding: what it is and how to start 213
Consider This 9.1 Motivating questions and coding domains 215
Analysis logistics: colors, cutting, or computers? 216
Manual approaches 216
Researcher’s Notepad 9.1 Manual coding visual displays: Artistic canvas and tabletop categories 217
Computer‐aided approaches with everyday software 218
Primary‐cycle coding, coding question start list, and first‐level descriptive codes 219
Focusing the analysis and creating a codebook 221
Researcher’s Notepad 9.2 Codebook excerpt 222
Consider This 9.2 Focusing the data analysis 224
Secondary‐cycle coding: second‐level analytic and axial/hierarchical codes 225
Exercise 9.1 Grouping together codes via axial and hierarchical coding 227
Synthesizing activities: memos, negative cases, and analytic outlines 228
Researcher’s Notepad 9.3 Analytic memos 229
Researcher’s Notepad 9.4 Loose analysis outline 230
Following, Forgetting, and Improvising 231
In summary 232
Exercise 9.2 Iterative analysis basics 233
10 Advanced data analysis: The art and magic of interpretation 236
Advanced logistical tools for data analysis 238
Visual data displays 238
Researcher’s Notepad 10.1 Matrix display 239
Tips and Tools 10.1 Flowchart depicting iterative analysis process 241
Computer‐aided qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS) 242
Exemplars and vignettes 245
Developing typologies 247
Dramatistic strategy and narrative analysis 248
Tips and Tools 10.2 Questions to inspire narrative analysis 250
Metaphor analysis 251
Explanation and causality 253
Discourse tracing 255
Researcher’s Notepad 10.2 Micro, meso, macro sources 257
A post‐qualitative analysis: deconstructionism and arts‐based research 258
Following, Forgetting, and Improvising 260
In summary 261
Exercise 10.1 Advanced data analysis/interpretation 262
11 Qualitative quality: Creating a credible, ethical, significant study 265
Moving beyond objectivity, reliability, and formal generalizability 266
Eight “big tent” criteria for high quality qualitative research 269
Tips and Tools 11.1 Eight “big tent” criteria for excellent qualitative research 270
Worthy topic 271
Rich rigor 271
Sincerity 272
Exercise 11.1 Gauging worth and rigor 273
Self‐reflexivity 273
Transparency 274
Researcher’s Notepad 11.1 Sincerity word cloud 274
Credibility 275
Thick description 275
Crystallization or triangulation (NOT both at the same time) 275
Multivocality 277
Tips and Tools 11.2 Intercoder reliability 277
Member reflections (NOT member “checks”) 278
Resonance 279
Transferability and naturalistic generalization 279
Aesthetic merit 280
Significant contribution 281
Ethical research practice 283
Procedural ethics 283
Exercise 11.2 Articulating and gauging significance 283
Situational ethics 284
Consider This 11.1 Situational and relational ethics 285
Meaningful coherence 286
Following, Forgetting, and Improvising 287
Consider This 11.2 The ten lies of ethnography 288
In summary 288
12 Theorizing and writing: Explaining, synthesizing, and crafting a tale 292
Theorizing, brainstorming, explaining 293
Exercise 12.1 Words push back on us: a creative analytic Exercise 294
Exercise 12.2 Theorizing via bracketing, abduction, metaphor, and explaining 295
Types of tales: realist, impressionistic/poetic, confessional/autoethnographic 296
The realist tale 297
Creative, impressionist, and literary tales 297
The confessional tale 299
Researcher’s Notepad 12.1 Poetic inquiry 300
Archaeology of a “traditional” qualitative essay 301
Researcher’s Notepad 12.2 Dialogue as a powerful literary tactic 302
Exercise 12.3 Accidental rewrites 303
Writing the framing material: title, abstract, key words 304
Writing the introduction, the literature review, and the conceptual framework 305
Writing the research methodology and method(s) 305
Findings and analysis: choosing an organizational approach 306
Researcher’s Notepad 12.3 Methods data display 307
Themes/topics 308
Chronology/life‐story 309
Convergence/braided narrative 309
Puzzle explication strategy 310
Separated text 310
Layered/messy texts 311
Exercise 12.4 Which writing strategy? 312
Conclusions, implications, limitations, and future research 312
Following, Forgetting, and Improvising 315
In summary 317
13 Drafting, polishing, and publishing 320
Writing as a method of inquiry 322
How to write and format qualitative research 323
Choosing the research materials 323
Rich, luminous, and thick representations 324
Structuring the data in sections, paragraphs, and sentences 325
Exercise 13.1 Writing from different perspectives and verb tenses 326
Formatting qualitative work 327
Visual representations and art 329
Researcher’s Notepad 13.1 Visual representation 330
Setting yourself up for success by considering the audience first 330
Exercise 13.2 Article format model 332
Submitting, revising, and resubmitting for journal publication 333
Tips and Tools 13.1 National or international journals that have published qualitative communication research (an incomplete list) 334
Rise and grind: overcoming common writing and submission challenges 336
How to write a lot 337
Addressing common challenges in qualitative writing 338
Following, Forgetting, and Improvising 342
In summary 342
14 Qualitative methodology matters: Exiting and communicating impact 344
Navigating exit and research disengagement 345
Give notice and say goodbye 346
Exits can be emotional 346
Don’t spoil the scene 346
Give back 347
Researcher’s Notepad 14.1 Thank you note 348
Ethically delivering the findings 348
Public scholarship: crafting representations that move beyond the scholarly essay 349
Following, Forgetting, and Improvising 350
Public scholarship 351
Staged performances 351
Researcher’s Notepad 14.2 Staged performance with impact 352
Films 353
White papers and translated essays 354
Tips and Tools 14.1 White papers 355
Grant applications and reports 356
Consulting and private sector ethnography 357
Media relations 358
Exercise 14.1 Six‐word stories 359
Web presence 359
Warning: doing research that matters can be terrifying 361
Overcoming lingering obstacles to public scholarship 362
Exercise 14.2 Making an impact via public scholarship 364
Following, Forgetting, and Improvising 364
In summary 366
Appendix A Fieldnote 367
Appendix B Focus group guide 369
Appendix C Interview/focus group excerpts with different levels of transcription detail 373
References 377
Index 400
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