Doing Qualitative Research in a Digital World

by Trena M. Paulus, Jessica Nina Lester

Overview

While some qualitative methods texts touch upon online communities as a potential data source, show how to conduct interviews and focus groups online, or select recording devices and analysis software, no book to date has guided readers in the creation of a comprehensive digital workflow for their research. By working through each chapter in this book, readers will be able to generate a unique digital workflow for designing and implementing their research. The book provides a deep exploration of the relationship between theories of technology, substantive theories, and methodological theory, and shows how together these inform the development of a quality research design. The authors include vignettes—narratives written by qualitative researchers describing cutting-edge use of digital tools and spaces—and also give examples of published studies, which together provide practical illustration of the content. Woven throughout is explicit attention to ethical challenges that are likely to be faced by researchers when adopting digital tools. The book invites readers to engage in a critical appraisal of the role of technology in qualitative research through reflection, conversation, and engagement with the larger community of researchers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781544321561
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Publication date:	01/31/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	392
File size:	42 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Trena M. Paulus, Ph.D. is a professor in the Research Division of Family Medicine, Quillen College of Medicine, East Tennessee State University. She is affiliate faculty with the Applied Social Research Laboratory at ETSU where she works in the areas of research support and innovation for the university. She is a co-author of Digital Tools for Qualitative Research (SAGE) and Looking for Insight Transformation and Learning in Online Talk (Routledge). Dr. Paulus has published over 70 peer-reviewed journal articles and numerous book chapters focused on the intersection of technology and qualitative research, online learning and teaching, and language-based research methodologies. She has recently has co-edited special issues on these topics in Qualitative Inquiry, The Qualitative Report and the Journal of Pragmatics, which won the Neal R. Norrick special issue award. She is a certified professional trainer for ATLAS.ti.

Jessica Lester is a Professor of Inquiry Methodology in the School of Education at Indiana University, Bloomington. Having been trained in cultural studies and qualitative research methodology, she takes an interdisciplinary approach to her scholarship, including both the methodological and substantive foci of her research program.

In her methodological work, Lester focuses on the study of language-based methods, digital tools in qualitative research, and disability in qualitative inquiry. Her substantive research has focused on examining interactional practices in clinical and educational contexts that involve children and youth.

Lester has received numerous awards for her scholarship, among them the 2014 AERA Division D Early Career Award in Measurement and Research Methodology, the 2018 APA Distinguished Early Career Contributions in Qualitative Inquiry Award, and the 2022 American Educational Studies Association Critics’ Choice Book Award. At Indiana University, Lester teaches qualitative methods courses and was recently recognized by the 2022 Gorman Distinguished Teaching Award. 

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Introduction to Doing Qualitative Research in a Digital World
Chapter 2: Qualitative Research Design in a Digital World
Chapter 3: Integrating Qualitative Data Analysis Software Across the Research Process
Chapter 4: Creating a Paperless Literature Review Process
Chapter 5: Generating Data from Pre-Existing (Digital) Spaces
Chapter 6: Generating Data with Researcher-Use Of (Digital) Tools
Chapter 7: Transcribing Innovations
Chapter 8: Managing and Analyzing Data
Chapter 9: Writing and Representing Findings to Become Public Scholars
Chapter 10: Concluding Thoughts on Doing Qualitative Research in a Chaotic World

Editorial Reviews

This text is packed with relevant topics related to engaging in qualitative research in today’s digital world. Regardless of whether one is simply aiming to use digital tools alongside research processes or wishes to research in digital spaces, this text anchors the reader in relevant, critical discourse of qualitative digital tools and spaces.

Kate H. Guthrie

This book offers a considerable amount of detail and discussion of the possibilities of digital tools and techniques, together with useful resources for students who are considering these options.

Chris Mc Vittie

While many methods and specialist guides mention software to assist the researcher in a particular analysis (e.g., Qualtrics for data analysis), Paulus and Lester flip the script and instead focus on the digital innovations that make qualitative research practices approachable, innovative, and expedient for researchers. Each chapter includes vignettes written by researchers across a wide range of academe to demonstrate digital research innovation in practice.... Digital novices and experts alike will find multiple innovations in the book that breathe new life into the traditional way of doing research in management education.

D.M. Gray

In our current digital age, Paulus and Lester have brought us a great resource for finding new ways to take advantage of the digital tools that are right before us!

Jeanne L. Surface

This is a great resource for all researchers to start to understand the use of digital tools in research, and to gain broader sense of how to engage with data.

Lisa Yamagata-Lynch

Far from being a book for researchers only, it offers useful guidance for evaluators who wish to learn more about how new technologies can transform evaluation practices and be used to create robust evaluation workflows, both in times of COVID-19 and beyond, as we engage new contexts and perspectives and continue to reshape our understanding of ‘fieldwork'.

Kenza Bennani

This book provides cutting-edge content from authors who are experts, and a rich source of information that isn't available elsewhere.

Karen Dill-Shackelford

Conducting and reporting evaluations can be stressful, especially in the context of the global pandemic (Maloney, 2020). With the COVID-19 restrictions, evaluators had a problem in common with researchers and teachers: How to make the most of the digital environment of our clients in gathering data and communicating. The new SAGE book Doing Qualitative Research in a Digital World (Paulus & Lester, 2022) should be a useful resource in adapting our data collection and analyses to the continuing digital context.

Colin Andrew Sharp