Teacher educators live hectic lives at institutional and discipline boundaries. Our greatest potential for influence is through developing relationships with others in our practice. Our work is fundamentally relational and emotional. We are obligated to the teachers we teach and the public students they teach. Our practice exists in the midst of experience, conflicting and often hostile boundaries, and between what we know from research and what we understand from practice. Self-study of practice invites researchers to embrace the hectic and fragmented territory of practice as the space for study. This book educates those who would like to explore practice in the methodology of self-study. It provides both a pragmatic and theoretic guide. It grounds the research in ontology and establishes dialogue as the inquiry process. It supports researchers through the use of frameworks to guide research and explication of strategies for conducting it.

This is a book designed with the teacher educator in mind. It provides in depth examination of specific methods used effectively in self-study research. The chapters are written by researchers engaged in self-study of their practice.

Writing Qualitative Research on Practice brings together key authors in the field of qualitative research to critique current trends and expand discourse about the challenges and practices of writing qualitative research. This book is located in the context of professional practice and the practice world. It scopes and maps the broad horizons of qualitative research on practice and explores writing in major qualitative research traditions. A key issue addressed in writing qualitative research, particularly the narrative forms, is finding a way to write that encapsulates the goals and genre of the research project. Writing is presented as a process and journey and also a way of thinking and creating knowledge. Within research, writing is an essential expression of the research frame of reference and a key element of the research genre. This book explores writing for a range of publications including books, chapters, theses and papers for journals. The practical and accessible style of this book makes it an invaluable resource for postgraduate research students, teachers and supervisors and scholars of qualitative research.

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.

"This book is located in the context of professional practice and the practice world. It scopes and maps the broad horizons of qualitative research on practice and explores writing in major qualitative research traditions. A key issue addressed in writing qualitative research, particularly the narrative forms, is finding a way to write that encapsulates the goals and genre of the research project. Writing is presented as a process and journey and also a way of thinking and creating knowledge. Within research, writing is an essential expression of the research frame of reference and a key element of the research genre. This book explores writing for a range of publications including books, chapters, theses and papers for journals."--Publisher.

Qualitative research has become increasingly popular in music education over the last decade, yet there is no source that explains the terms, approaches and issues associated with this approach. In The Oxford Handbook of Qualitative Research in American Music Education, editor Colleen Conway and the contributing music educators provide that clarification, as well as models of qualitative studies within various music education disciplines. The handbook outlines the history of qualitative research in American music education and explores the contemporary use of qualitative approaches in examining issues related to music teaching and learning. It includes 32 chapters that address a range of topics, from ways of approaching qualitative research and ways of collecting and analyzing data, to the various music teaching and learning contexts that have been studied using qualitative approaches. The final section of the book tackles permission to conduct research, teaching qualitative research, publishing qualitative research, and provides direction for the future. An ambitious and much-needed volume, this handbook will stand as a key resource for drawing meaning from the experiences of students and teachers in music classrooms and communities both in America and in other countries.

The Oxford Handbook of Qualitative Research, Second Edition presents a comprehensive, interdisciplinary overview of the field of qualitative research. Divided into eight parts, the forty chapters address key topics in the field such as approaches to qualitative research (philosophical perspectives), narrative inquiry, field research, and interview methods, text, arts-based, and internet methods, analysis and interpretation of findings, and representation and evaluation. The handbook is intended for students of all levels, faculty, and researchers across the disciplines, and the contributors represent some of the most influential and innovative researchers as well as emerging scholars. This handbook provides a broad introduction to the field of qualitative research to those with little to no background in the subject, while providing substantive contributions to the field that will be of interest to even the most experienced researchers. It serves as a user-friendly teaching tool suitable for a range of undergraduate or graduate courses, as well as individuals working on their thesis or other research projects. With a focus on methodological instruction, the incorporation of real-world examples and practical applications, and ample coverage of writing and representation, this volume offers everything readers need to undertake their own qualitative studies.