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The Literature on Qualitative Method: A Selection

General introductory texts (starred items particularly recommended)

Berg, B.L. Qualitative Research Methods for the Social Sciences, Boston, Allyn and Bacon, 1989.

Bogdan, R.C. and Taylor, S. Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods, New York, Wiley, 1975 (see Taylor and Bogdan for second edition).

Bogdan, R.C. and Biklen, S.K. Qualitative Research for Education, Boston, Allyn and Bacon, 1982.

*Burgess, R.G. In the Field, London, Allen and Unwin, 1984.

Delamont, S. Fieldwork in Educational Settings: methods, pitfalls and perspectives, Lewes, Falmer, 1992.

Ely, M. Doing Qualitative Research: circles within circles, London, Falmer, 1991.

Fetterman, D.M. Ethnography: step by step, Newbury Park, Sage, 1989.

*Hammersley, M. Reading Ethnographic Research, London, Longman, 1991.

*Hammersley, M. and Atkinson, P.A. Ethnography: principles in practice, London, Tavistock/Routledge, 1983. (Third edition 2007)

Hitchcock, G. and Hughes, D. Research and the Teacher, London, Routledge, 1989.

Lecompte, M.D. and Preissle, J. Ethnography and Qualitative Research Design in Educational Research, San Diego, CA, Academic Press, 1993. (First edition of Goetz and LeCompte 1984.)

*Lofland, J. and L. Analyzing Social Settings, Belmont, California, Wadsworth 1984 (Second edition, first also useful, though very different). A third edition is now available.

*Maxwell, J. A. Qualitative Research Design, Thousand Oaks, Sage, 1996

*Schatzman, L. and Strauss, A. Field Research, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, Prentice Hall, 1973.

Silverman, D. Theory, Method and Practice, Aldershot, Sage, 2004

Spradley, J.P. Participant Observation, New York, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1980.

Taylor, S. and Bogdan, J.C. Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods, New York, Wiley (second edition of Bogdan and Taylor) 1988.

Woods, P. Inside Schools: ethnography in educational research, London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1986.

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Useful collections of articles on different types and aspects of qualitative research, and controversial issues relating to it, are included in the following:

P. Atkinson, A. Coffey, S. Delamont, J. Lofland, and L. Lofland (eds.) Handbook of Ethnography, London, Sage, 2001.

N.K. Denzin and Y.S. Lincoln (eds.) Handbook of Qualitative Research, Thousand Oaks, Sage, 1994. (This has now been re-issued as three separate paperbacks. The editors and publisher are the same. The titles are: Collecting and Interpreting Qualitative Materials, The Landscape of Qualitative Research, and Strategies of Qualitative Inquiry. They were published in 1998) A second edition of this handbook appeared in 2000, with substantially different contents.

*E. Eisner and A. Peshkin (eds) Qualitative Enquiry in Education, New York, Teachers College Press, 1990.

C. Seale, G. Gobo, J. F. Gubrium, and D. Silverman (eds.) Qualitative Research Practice, London, Sage, 2004.

There is also a series of small books published by Sage dealing with specific issues concerning qualitative research methods.

Texts on qualitative approaches in evaluation research.

Fetterman, D. Ethnography in Educational Evaluation, Beverly Hills, Sage. 1984.

Fetterman, D. Qualitative Approaches to Evaluation in Education, New York, Praeger, 1988

Guba, E. and Lincoln, Y. Fourth Generation Evaluation, Newbury Park, Sage, 1989.

Hamilton, D., Jenkins, D., King, C. MacDonald, B. and Parlett, M., (eds) Beyond the Numbers Game: a reader in educational evaluation, London, Macmillan, 1977.

Parlett, M. and Dearden, G. (eds) Introduction to Illuminative Evaluation: studies in higher education, Cardiff-by-the-Sea, CA, Pacific Soundings Press.

Patton, M. Q. Qualitative Evaluation and Research Methods, Newbury Park, Sage, 1990 (Second edition).

Patton, M.Q. Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methods, SAGE, 2002. *Shaw, I. F. Qualitative Evaluation, London, Sage, 1999.

Walker, R. (ed.) Applied Qualitative Research, Aldershot, Gower, 1985.

'Unstructured' and life history interviewing

Many of the general introductions include discussions of interviewing. In addition, see:

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Spradley, J.P. Ethnographic Interviewing, New York, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1979.

Seidman, I.E. Interviewing as Qualitative Research, New York, Teachers College Press, 1991.

Life history interviewing is unstructured interviewing that focuses on the biography, career or life experience of the person being interviewed. On this see:

Plummer, K. Documents of Life, London, Allen and Unwin, 1983. A more recent edition of this book is now available, published by Sage in 2001

Dhunpath, R., & Samuel, M. (Eds) Life History Research: Epistemology, Methodology and Representation, SENSE publishers, 2009.

Action ResearchCane, B., & Shroeder, C. (1970) The teacher and research, Slough: NFER.

Carr, W., & Kemmis, S. (1986) Becoming critical: Education, Knowledge and Action Research, London: Falmer.

Carr, W. (2006) Philosophy, methodology and action research, Journal of Philosophy of Education, Special Issue: Philosophy, Methodology and Educational Research Part 1, 40, 2, 421-437.