Research to the Point – serie

In Qualitative Research in Health and Illness, Dr. Jessica Smartt Gullion leverages two decades of experience as a qualitative methodologist and epidemiologist to provide an in-depth guide on conducting qualitative inquiry in the health fields. The book will begin with an overview of qualitative research and its applications. After laying down the foundation, Gullion guides students through the process of conducting research. Chapters provide detailed coverage on the formation of a research question, the ethics of a project, different data collection techniques such as interviewing, ethnographic research, and medical narratives, and concludes with strategies for analyzing data and documenting findings. Each chapter will include a number of exemplars of real projects and brief interviews with researchers doing relevant work, separated out as boxes, as well as active learning assignments for professors utilizing flipped classroom models. This book will broaden researchers' perspectives on research methodologies and serve as an important resource to engage students in the research process.

Qualitative Methods in Media and Communication offers a learning-centered guide to designing, conducting, and evaluating qualitative communication and media research methods. Drawing upon years of teaching qualitative research methods, Sandra L. Faulkner and Joshua D. Atkinson introduce and unpack qualitative communication research method design, analysis, representation, writing, and evaluation using extended examples and clear discussion. The authors use key terms, extended examples, discussion questions, student-tested writing and research activities, examples of student work and questions, and suggested resources to help readers design, do, and analyze qualitative research.As a textbook, its pedagogical goals for the student include: (1) becoming a critical reader of research studies by understanding the epistemologies and methodological assumptions used by researchers, (2) learning the various methods, strategies, and approaches for doing qualitative research, (3) developing a strong basic vocabulary and understanding of concepts relating to qualitative and humanistic research methods, (4) understanding special concerns related to particular research methods, and (5) designing, executing, and representing original qualitative research projects. With numerous elements intended to engage students and enrich the learning process, the book provides examples of how to do qualitative and critical analyses, including arts-based and media and textual analyses to understand, describe, and query communication and media research in a variety of communication areas. There is also an extensive discussion of ethics in qualitative research and spotlights with renowned researchers on hot topics in qualitative research.

Participatory Action Research (PAR) privileges the involvement of participants as co-researchers to generate new knowledge and act on findings to effect social change. In PAR projects, academic researchers collaborate closely with co-researchers, working from the idea that these individuals, especially those who are usually marginalized from institutions, can be engaged in meaningful research activities to achieve social justice outcomes in addition to answering research questions. When deployed ethically in collaboration with co-researchers, PAR's participatory element facilitates a 'bottom-up' approach where knowledge is co-created through grassroots or community-based activities. This book goes beyond a PAR 'how to' manual on the methodology. Rather it synthesizes key learnings in contemporary research, with a distinct focus on the challenging aspects of undertaking PAR in practice and strategies to address these. It provides a clear and user-friendly collection of practical and contextual examples and presents key pointers on the implications of PAR methods, their strengths and weaknesses, and strategies for the field. These examples will be useful for critical class discussions, as well as to anticipate fieldwork pitfalls and pre-empt challenges through collaborative approaches.

Participatory Action Research (PAR) privileges the involvement of participants as co-researchers to generate new knowledge and act on findings to effect social change. In PAR projects, academic researchers collaborate closely with co-researchers, working from the idea that these individuals, especially those who are usually marginalized from institutions, can be engaged in meaningful research activities to achieve social justice outcomes in addition to answering research questions. When deployed ethically in collaboration with co-researchers, PAR's participatory element facilitates a 'bottom-up' approach where knowledge is co-created through grassroots or community-based activities. This book goes beyond a PAR 'how to' manual on the methodology. Rather it synthesizes key learnings in contemporary research, with a distinct focus on the challenging aspects of undertaking PAR in practice and strategies to address these. It provides a clear and user-friendly collection of practical and contextual examples and presents key pointers on the implications of PAR methods, their strengths and weaknesses, and strategies for the field. These examples will be useful for critical class discussions, as well as to anticipate fieldwork pitfalls and pre-empt challenges through collaborative approaches.

Qualitative Methods in Media and Communication offers a learning-centered guide to designing, conducting, and evaluating qualitative communication and media research methods. Drawing upon years of teaching qualitative research methods, Sandra L. Faulkner and Joshua D. Atkinson introduce and unpack qualitative communication research method design, analysis, representation, writing, and evaluation using extended examples and clear discussion. The authors use key terms, extended examples, discussion questions, student-tested writing and research activities, examples of student work and questions, and suggested resources to help readers design, do, and analyze qualitative research.As a textbook, its pedagogical goals for the student include: (1) becoming a critical reader of research studies by understanding the epistemologies and methodological assumptions used by researchers, (2) learning the various methods, strategies, and approaches for doing qualitative research, (3) developing a strong basic vocabulary and understanding of concepts relating to qualitative and humanistic research methods, (4) understanding special concerns related to particular research methods, and (5) designing, executing, and representing original qualitative research projects. With numerous elements intended to engage students and enrich the learning process, the book provides examples of how to do qualitative and critical analyses, including arts-based and media and textual analyses to understand, describe, and query communication and media research in a variety of communication areas. There is also an extensive discussion of ethics in qualitative research and spotlights with renowned researchers on hot topics in qualitative research.

Dialogic methodology is a specific approach to research that invites creative engagement with plural voices and their meanings in lived experience. It draws from the writings of Russian philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin who established an agenda for the study of dialogue. In Dialogic Methodology for Transdisciplinary Practice-Based Research, E. Jayne White and Mahtab Janfada introduce the premises, processes, and practices of dialogic methodology as a legitimised approach to the transdisciplinary study of practice. Drawing on a series of Bakhtin's original writings and dynamic interviews from dialogic scholars across the globe, the authors advocate approaches to research that invite speculative inquiry and even question the original assertions that oriented the issue in the first place. As White and Janfada set out an alternative pathway for scholars and students to contemplate the relevance of dialogism for their research, they offer an expansive possibility for contemplating issues, paradoxes, or problems across diverse practice contexts. They present their approach as an alternative methodological framework for research in educational contexts, emphasizing the subjectivities that support and/or thwart their effectiveness and purpose. Hence this methodology seeks points of departure from traditional object-subject based research 'on' or 'about' the other, to interdisciplinary investigations that determinedly bring all parties into investigation and inquiry. Synthesizing the latest research in the field and translating complex ideas into real life practice contexts, this book walks readers through the ins and outs of dialogic methodology, with a view of how to apply the approach to their own research and practice.

In Qualitative Research in Health and Illness, Dr. Jessica Smartt Gullion leverages two decades of experience as a qualitative methodologist and epidemiologist to provide an in-depth guide on conducting qualitative inquiry in the health fields. The book will begin with an overview of qualitative research and its applications. After laying down the foundation, Gullion guides students through the process of conducting research. Chapters provide detailed coverage on the formation of a research question, the ethics of a project, different data collection techniques such as interviewing, ethnographic research, and medical narratives, and concludes with strategies for analyzing data and documenting findings. Each chapter will include a number of exemplars of real projects and brief interviews with researchers doing relevant work, separated out as boxes, as well as active learning assignments for professors utilizing flipped classroom models. This book will broaden researchers' perspectives on research methodologies and serve as an important resource to engage students in the research process.