How Thunder and Lightning Came to Be: A Choctaw Tale

All qualitative researchers have to justify their research programme to a sceptical decison-maker - a dissertion committee, funding agency or government body - at some point. How do qualitative researchers overcome scepticism and more importantly create a viable research programme in the first place? This practical, step-by-step guide addresses this issue. Drawing from the actual experiences of scholars, students and practitioners from a variety of fields, Marshall and Rossman explain how to combine the following elements into a strong, convincing qualitative research proposal: how to connect the philosophy and perspectives of the qualitative approach to their own question or problem; how to use related literature to elicit guiding questions; how to convince others that the question or problem is important and that tand thection of a qualitative approach will be worthwhile; how to match data collection strategies with emerging research questions; how to demonstrate one's capacity to make good decisions about research ethics, entry into settings, and researcher roles; and how to demonstrate the systematic logic of qualitative data analysis and the viability of the research report. This handy sourcebook makes valuable reading for social science researchers, graduate students and professionals.