Narratives of Qualitative Research uses a novel form of writing about how to do qualitative research called a praxis narrative. Each narrative is told from the author’s perspective in carrying out one of his past research studies in the social sciences.
Told chronologically and in a first-person voice, the narratives position the reader alongside the narrator so as to vicariously experience how research happens in its situated particulars. Rather than a set of idealizations and universalized pronouncements, the author reveals what really goes on when one is in the thick of complex and challenging research studies, the points of trouble along with the successes. This will be relevant to researchers who have already undertaken one or more empirical research studies (though not necessarily using qualitative approaches) and now find themselves facing something new: a new analytic method, a new theoretical lens, a new form of data collection, a new domain of research questions, a new rhetorical approach. This requires letting go of the secure handholds of prescribed methods and responding to the contingencies that arise in the midst of the research. The reader is invited to follow along as the author makes visible his praxis of qualitative research.
Unlike more conventional texts, in this unique alternative, the reader can follow the author's journey through his research studies as a way to reorient their conception of qualitative research and their own praxis of it. This is fascinating reading for qualitative researchers and students taking qualitative research courses, across the social sciences, education, and behavioural sciences.
