ABSTRACT
Responding to the question “Why do qualitative research?” Corbin and Strauss (2008) wrote, “Qualitative research allows researchers to get at the inner experience of participants, to determine how meanings are formed through and in culture, and to discover rather than test variables” (p. 12). Qualitative research is perhaps ideally suited to the “messy” construct of teachers’ beliefs (Pajares, 1992), as the development of a complex, detailed understanding of teachers’ beliefs can be established by talking directly with teachers, going to their schools, and allowing them to tell their stories (Creswell, 2013).
