written by Valerie K. Otero and Danielle B. Harlow
published by the American Association of Physics Teachers
edited by Charles R. Henderson and Kathleen A. Harper

In this article, we introduce strategies and procedures for collecting and analyzing qualitative data and discuss other aspects of qualitative research such as the role of theory. There are multiple traditions of qualitative research, each with its own methods and terminology. Here, we provide a generic approach to qualitative research that is consistent with most qualitative research traditions. This article consists of nine sections: 1) Introduction, 2) Research Questions and Study Design, 3) Collecting Data, 4) Processing Data, 5) Coding and Analyzing Data, 6) Multiple Representations and Making Inferences, 7) Theoretical perspectives, 8) An Illustration of the Research Process and 9) Validity and Reliability in Qualitative Research. Throughout this article, strategies and examples are provided to help researchers that are both new and veterans to Physics Education Research (PER) to get started in qualitative PER.

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Published June 10, 2009
Last Modified June 11, 2009

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