Learning and Teaching Qualitative Research: A View from the Reference Disciplines of Anthropology and History

Abstract

As interest grows in qualitative methods, more attention is being focused on how to teach others to carry out qualitative research projects. Qualitative research has roots in social science and humanities disciplines. Over the years, individuals in these disciplines have honed data collection and analysis techniques and developed approaches to understanding through a variety of descriptive and interpretive methods. Their methods include observation, participation, close reading of texts, and, more recently, data analysis techniques such as discourse analysis, hermeneutic interpretation, and grounded theory. In many cases, these researchers articulated and practiced ways of understanding the points of view of the individuals they study (be this focused on a text, an historical development, or a ritual practice). They then went deeper by using additional theoretical knowledge together with additional evidence to interpret and explain the situation under study. They also may have incorporated methods and epistemological stances from other fields, developing such areas as cliometrics in history, ethnoscience in anthropology, and the widespread use of sophisticated statistical analysis in sociology and psychology.