ABSTRACT

In qualitative research, it is important to discuss the assumptions, beliefs, and values that inform the way students make meaning of their research topic. Often when people meet qualitative research for the first time, they try to understand concepts in qualitative research using terminologies from quantitative research. This usually causes confusion, and students have a hard time shifting their thinking. Once students have completed writing their research purpose, they are then ready to conceptualize two to three research questions that align with their research purpose. Research questions are generally questions that break apart students' research purpose more specifically to their focal points of inquiry. It is common in qualitative research to collect various types of relevant documents and archived materials that provide the researcher a better contextual understanding. An alternate way of knowing in qualitative research is elicitations. Some examples of elicitations are: photo elicitation; object elicitation; video elicitation; lyric elicitation; and task elicitation.