ABSTRACT
All of the planning you have done to this point will lead you to the heart of your research: finding answers to your research question. Starting the search for answers involves making strategic decisions about which methodological tools to use. In this and the next chapter, we identify several of these tools (reading, observation, interviews, surveys, and artifact analysis), explaining, in detail, how to use them and discussing their advantages and disadvantages. As you will discover, there are many reasons for selecting certain tools over others: from the nature of your research question to the applicability of a particular tool to a particular setting. Part of your journey in this chapter, then, is to determine which methodological tools will help you best answer your research question.
