Designing Qualitative Studies

TLDR: The qualitative research question provides the conceptual base and the direction for actual research involvements as discussed by the authors. But the actual process of doing qualitative research involves gathering evidence (data) and making sense of collected data bodies.

Abstract: The qualitative research question provides the conceptual base and the direction for actual research involvements. But the actual process of ‘doing’ research involves gathering evidence (data) and making sense of collected data bodies. The successful handling of these processes of dealing with data—that are multifaceted and quite challenging processes—requires some prior planning. The planning is a complex theoretical undertaking and is compounded by numerous practical considerations. Moreover, in addition to a priori planning for the project, you need to constantly assess the early plan and modify it to meet the emerging conditions of the inquiry process. This vibrant and challenging process of planning for your qualitative research is called ‘designing’. This chapter is about designing qualitative language education research as the link between the theoretical considerations and the practical side of the research endeavor.