NEW Planning and Designing a Qualitative Project

Elaine Keane

July 21-22

This course presents the qualities of a well-planned qualitative inquiry study, introduces principles and philosophies that guide planning and design, and addresses practical and logistical issues related to this evolving process.

Not only is a qualitative study plan detailed and easily understood, its components depend on the project’s evolving nature, underscoring the continual need for flexibility, often addressed using multiple strategies of data generation and analysis. A well-planned study also keeps a realistic timeframe—working “backwards” from the intended goal and deadline—to make the project manageable and responsive to ongoing “on the ground” developments. Through all stages of design, researchers critically use evaluative criteria to assess areas that need particular focus or redirection.

Planning and designing the phases of qualitative inquiry projects include planning for access to research sites and participant recruitment, planning for quality and adequate data generation (sources and approaches), designing appropriate, systematic, and rigorous data analysis (approach, timing, and techniques), and planning for writing and dissemination.

The course will attend to specific principles that guide planning and designing, including:

  • foundational assumptions and “logics” underpinning qualitative research and design
  • the importance of active planning and responding to a study’s emergent nature
  • considering implications of several “full” qualitative research designs (e.g., ethnography, phenomenology, grounded theory)
  • attending to the need for alignment between methodological approach and research design and practice
  • issues pertaining to a more “general” qualitative approach applicable to all qualitative research designs
  • anticipating and planning how to address ethical issues
  • examining how to address researcher positionality throughout the research process

The course will include multiple practical exercises to engage participants in developing and refining their knowledge and skills with an emphasis on adequate data generation and analysis and appropriate sequencing of activities.

Course content will draw on the scholarship of Norman Denzin, John Creswell, Kathy Charmaz, Yvonna Lincoln, Egon Guba, Janice Morse, Martyn Hammersley, Kathryn Roulston, Uwe Flick, and more, including the following:

  • Charmaz, K. (2014) Constructing grounded theory. 2nd ed. London: Sage
  • Creswell, J. W., & Poth, C. N. (2016) (4th ed.). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches. London: SAGE
  • deMarrais, K., Roulston, K., & Copple, J. (2024) Qualitative Research Design and Methods: An Introduction, Maine: Myers Education Press.
  • Denzin, N. and Lincoln, Y. (Eds). (2018) The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research, 5th ed., London: Sage
  • Flick, U. (Ed.) (2022) The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research Design, London: Sage
  • Hammersley, M., & Atkinson, P. (2019) Ethnography: Principles in practice, London: Routledge.
  • Lincoln, Y., Lynham, S. and Guba, E. (2018) paradigmatic controversies, contradictions, and emerging confluences, revisited, in Denzin, N. and Lincoln, Y. (Eds). The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research, 5th ed., London: Sage, pp. 108-150
  • Maxwell, J. (2022) Interactive approaches to qualitative research design, in Flick, U. (Ed.) (2022) The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research Design, London: Sage, pp. 41.54
  • Morse, J. (2022) The fallacy of rigor: Examining checklist criteria as an indicator of quality, in Flick, U. (Ed.) The SAGE handbook of qualitative research design, London: Sage, 373-395
  • Roulston, K., & Halpin, S. N. (2022). Designing qualitative research using interview data, in Flick, U. (Ed.) The SAGE handbook of qualitative research design, London: Sage, 667-683.
  • Thornberg, R. and Keane, E. (2022) Designing grounded theory studies, in Flick, U. (Ed.) The SAGE handbook of qualitative research design, London: Sage, 452-466
  • Vanover, C., Mihas, P. and Saldaña, J. (Eds.), The Analysis and Interpretation of Qualitative Data: After the interview. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage