1

The Literature on Qualitative Method: A Selection

General introductory texts (starred items particularly recommended)
Berg, B.L. Qualitative Research Methods for the Social Sciences, Boston, Allyn and
Bacon, 1989.
Bogdan, R.C. and Taylor, S. Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods, New
York, Wiley, 1975 (see Taylor and Bogdan for second edition).
Bogdan, R.C. and Biklen, S.K. Qualitative Research for Education, Boston, Allyn and
Bacon, 1982.
*Burgess, R.G. In the Field, London, Allen and Unwin, 1984.
Delamont, S. Fieldwork in Educational Settings: methods, pitfalls and perspectives,
Lewes, Falmer, 1992.
Ely, M. Doing Qualitative Research: circles within circles, London, Falmer, 1991.
Fetterman, D.M. Ethnography: step by step, Newbury Park, Sage, 1989.
*Hammersley, M. Reading Ethnographic Research, London, Longman, 1991.
*Hammersley, M. and Atkinson, P.A. Ethnography: principles in practice, London,
Tavistock/Routledge, 1983. (Third edition 2007)
Hitchcock, G. and Hughes, D. Research and the Teacher, London, Routledge, 1989.
Lecompte, M.D. and Preissle, J. Ethnography and Qualitative Research Design in
Educational Research, San Diego, CA, Academic Press, 1993. (First edition of Goetz
and LeCompte 1984.)
*Lofland, J. and L. Analyzing Social Settings, Belmont, California, Wadsworth 1984
(Second edition, first also useful, though very different). A third edition is now
available.
*Maxwell, J. A. Qualitative Research Design, Thousand Oaks, Sage, 1996
*Schatzman, L. and Strauss, A. Field Research, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, Prentice Hall,
1973.
Silverman, D. Theory, Method and Practice, Aldershot, Sage, 2004
Spradley, J.P. Participant Observation, New York, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1980.
Taylor, S. and Bogdan, J.C. Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods, New
York, Wiley (second edition of Bogdan and Taylor) 1988.
Woods, P. Inside Schools: ethnography in educational research, London, Routledge
and Kegan Paul, 1986.

2
Useful collections of articles on different types and aspects of qualitative
research, and controversial issues relating to it, are included in the following:
P. Atkinson, A. Coffey, S. Delamont, J. Lofland, and L. Lofland (eds.) Handbook of
Ethnography, London, Sage, 2001.
N.K. Denzin and Y.S. Lincoln (eds.) Handbook of Qualitative Research, Thousand
Oaks, Sage, 1994. (This has now been re-issued as three separate paperbacks. The
editors and publisher are the same. The titles are: Collecting and Interpreting
Qualitative Materials, The Landscape of Qualitative Research, and Strategies of
Qualitative Inquiry. They were published in 1998) A second edition of this handbook
appeared in 2000, with substantially different contents.
*E. Eisner and A. Peshkin (eds) Qualitative Enquiry in Education, New York,
Teachers College Press, 1990.
C. Seale, G. Gobo, J. F. Gubrium, and D. Silverman (eds.) Qualitative Research
Practice, London, Sage, 2004.
There is also a series of small books published by Sage dealing with specific issues
concerning qualitative research methods.
Texts on qualitative approaches in evaluation research.
Fetterman, D. Ethnography in Educational Evaluation, Beverly Hills, Sage. 1984.
Fetterman, D. Qualitative Approaches to Evaluation in Education, New York,
Praeger, 1988
Guba, E. and Lincoln, Y. Fourth Generation Evaluation, Newbury Park, Sage, 1989.
Hamilton, D., Jenkins, D., King, C. MacDonald, B. and Parlett, M., (eds) Beyond the
Numbers Game: a reader in educational evaluation, London, Macmillan, 1977.
Parlett, M. and Dearden, G. (eds) Introduction to Illuminative Evaluation: studies in
higher education, Cardiff-by-the-Sea, CA, Pacific Soundings Press.
Patton, M. Q. Qualitative Evaluation and Research Methods, Newbury Park, Sage,
1990 (Second edition).
Patton, M.Q. Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methods, SAGE, 2002.
*Shaw, I. F. Qualitative Evaluation, London, Sage, 1999.
Walker, R. (ed.) Applied Qualitative Research, Aldershot, Gower, 1985.
'Unstructured' and life history interviewing
Many of the general introductions include discussions of interviewing. In addition, see:
Spradley, J.P. Ethnographic Interviewing, New York, Holt, Rinehart and Winston,
1979.

Seidman, I.E. Interviewing as Qualitative Research, New York, Teachers College

Press, 1991.
Life history interviewing is unstructured interviewing that focuses on the
biography, career or life experience of the person being interviewed. On this see:
Plummer, K. Documents of Life, London, Allen and Unwin, 1983. A more recent
edition of this book is now available, published by Sage in 2001
Dhunpath, R., & Samuel, M. (Eds) Life History Research: Epistemology,
Methodology and Representation, SENSE publishers, 2009.
Action Research
Cane, B., & Shroeder, C. (1970) The teacher and research, Slough: NFER.
Carr, W., & Kemmis, S. (1986) Becoming critical: Education, Knowledge and Action
Research, London: Falmer.
Carr, W. (2006) Philosophy, methodology and action research, Journal of Philosophy
of Education, Special Issue: Philosophy, Methodology and Educational Research
Part 1, 40, 2, 421-437.